Van Gogh Inspired Sunflowers

This week we looked at Van Gogh's sunflowers. I brought in some real sunflowers for inspiration along with Van Gogh's images. We discussed texture and students looked and touched the flowers to get a better idea of how to illustrate what they were seeing. Every single work was different and so beautiful!

Windy Days

We have been talking a lot about wind and looking at how artists illustrate wind in their work. Today I read the book Goodnight Kiss by Amy Hest. The story is a sweet bedtime tale and the illustrations are a wonderful example of wind. At the end of the book students discussed what they might add to the illustrations to demonstrate wind even more clearly. We had a great conversation full of brilliant ideas! Next we looked at more work by Van Gogh specifically the tall bent grasses and trees in the wind in contrast to calmer illustrations where the grass and trees are standing straight.

Students then used oil pastels to create a windy background on an evening sky. Next, on a separate piece of paper they illustrated a house using oil pastels and watercolor. When they put the two together they came to life! Wait until you see the work come home!

First Day of Art

Hooray! It is finally the first day of art! Today I read Gilberto and the Wind by Marie Hall Ets.

It's a sweet story of a boy playing with the wind and all that the wind is capable of doing. Next, we looked at some familiar and not so familiar work from Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night and Arles: View from the Wheatfields. We discussed the difference in the two pieces. Students looked and discussed how Van Gogh created wind and movement in Starry Night as well and a sense of calm in Arles: View from the Wheatfields.

After our discussion students used their markers, colored pencils and crayons to create a scene of their own including a solid structure (house), trees and movement (wind). It was a fantastic first day and so much fun to see all the new faces and some familiar from last year!