Bell School 1st Grader recently completed a unit on the works of Vincent Van Gogh. This is one of my favorite projects during the school year. The kids have the opportunity to study the life of this amazing artist. One of our favorite books is "Getting to Know - Van Gogh".
A little interesting story about the Vincent Van Gogh Sunflowers that I found on the web Although I've read about his story a number of times I thought this was a great way share with children Van Gogh's motivation for these particular paintings... It was August. Vincent didn't have any friends in Arles and was very lonely. He decided to invite a fellow artist, Paul Gauguin, to come and stay with him so they could paint together. Vincent wanted his friend Paul to feel welcome, and he wanted to impress him with his skill as a painter. So he created four sunflower still-lifes to decorate the walls of Paul’s bedroom. Paul Gauguin wasn't very fond of the sunflower paintings and immediately removed them from the wall of his room. Little did he know that a hundred years later one of Vincent’s sunflower paintings set a record for the most expensive painting in the world...
The project included sketches of flower pots and large flowers. Students used white glue to outline their sketches. When the glue was dried. They created an impressionistic drawing style using bright mix of oil pastels in a quick short stroke. Similar to the quick painting style of the impressionists and Van Gogh.
