Friday, March 7, 2014

4th Grade Van Gogh Sunflowers

Spring has sprung (in the art room). Flowers and colors are filling the drying racks and shelves.  Well, I mean there are always plenty of colors in here as you can usually see the color of my pants illuminating through the hallway. BUT I think we are all ready for a little green to start showing through.  

This is a lesson I did with 4th graders last year.  I LOVED it so I tried it again this year.  We talked about Vincent Van Gogh and looked at his "Sunflowers" painting.  The first day of the lesson was dedicated to drawing.  Students went ahead and drew a vase and 5-6 flowers using a white oil pastel.  I then gave students yellow paint to fill in the flowers.  I came around with some white to put on top of the yellow.  WITHOUT rinsing out paintbrushes I gave them some green paint for the stems and leaves and finally some brown paint for the centers.

On the second day we reviewed Warm and Cool colors. Using oil pastels (in the short brushstroke way like Van Gogh used) students filled in the vase, table, and background with oil pastels.  Most of the students finish in two days some needed a little more time at the beginning of the next class. 

They all turned out beautifully.




2 comments:

  1. love it. I have no art experience but I am going to try as a classroom activity.

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    1. This will be a great project to do in your classroom. I originally did this project in collaboration with a classroom teacher and it worked really well. Good luck!

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