Vincent van Gogh: Meet the Artist

Vincent van Gogh

Starry Night 

Please allow 1.5 hours of classroom time

SUPPLIES

• 12 x 18 construction paper, black or dark blue, 1 per child
• Tempera paints in a variety of 5–8 colors, but make sure all kids have BLACK and BLUE as options.
• Paper plates to create paint palettes. 1 palette can be shared by 2–4 kids.
• Paint brushes, 1 per child                                                                (if you're doing the "Q-tip Challenge" use q-tips in place of brushes, available in the art closet. Each child will need 2-3 q-tips per color.)
• Plastic cups filled with water (to wash out brushes), 1 per child
• Paper towels, folded into squares to create blotter for brushes - BRING FROM HOME (we don't have enough room in the art closet to stock this).
• Color copies of images in lesson to display on the document camera/projector, or to pass around the classroom.
• Poster of Starry Night to display in the classroom.
• Artist label - please glue to the back of each paper before you teach the lesson.
• Scratch paper (younger grades)
• Pencils, 1 per child, from children's own supplies
• Books about van Gogh for TK–1st Grades

On the white board write: Vincent van Gogh, 1853-1890, Post-Impressionism

TK–1st Grades: Instead of reading the script below, read the book Vincent van Gogh (Brush with Greatness) or Vincent van Gogh (Getting to know the World's Greatest Artists). After finishing the book, display an image of Starry Night and pick up the script at "Starry Night."

SCRIPT

Good Afternoon Everyone!

We're going to learn about someone who is considered one of the greatest artists in history. His name is Vincent van Gogh and he lived about 150 years ago. Today his paintings are displayed in museums all over the world, even here in Los Angeles, and his artwork sells for millions of dollars. A painting he created of his doctor, called Portrait of Dr. Gachet, is one of the highest-priced paintings in the world; it sold for 82 million dollars about 20 years ago. Would you like to see that painting?

SHOW IMAGE #1 ON ELMO 

Van Gogh lived to be just 37 years old and painted for only 10 years. But during those 10 years he painted all the time and created more than 2,100 works of art! Do you think his paintings were well-liked when he was alive? {Art Rep: take responses} Actually, all of his popularity came AFTER he died. During his lifetime he only sold one painting for about $80. He never knew that people loved and admired his artwork. Here is the only painting he sold while he was alive. 

SHOW IMAGE #2 (THE RED VINEYARD) ON ELMO

Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Groot-Zundert, Holland. He was the eldest boy of 6 children. He was especially close to his younger brother, Theo. When van Gogh was 11 years old, his parents sent him away to boarding school where he missed his family very much. Throughout his life, van Gogh wrote many letters to his younger brother Theo and they often included drawings and sketches. Theo was so impressed by these drawings that he encouraged van Gogh to become an artist. Later when both were young men, his brother Theo paid all of van Gogh's bills so he could spend time sketching and learning how to use watercolors.

In 1886, at the age of 33, van Gogh moved to Paris, France because so much exciting art was happening there at that time. Painters there were painting in a new style called Impressionism. Impressionists did something different than what had been done before: they drew and painted scenes of everyday life, like cooking and sleeping, and they also painted landscapes. Does anyone know what a landscape is? {A painting of nature and the land, such as ocean, mountains, trees, and sky.} These are normal things to see in art now, but back in the 1800s most of the art made in Europe had much grander subjects like battle scenes and stories from ancient Rome and Greece. 

Impressionists painted in a way that didn't look exactly "real," but it gives you an "impression" of the real thing. They painted thickly, using thick dabs of paint, and they used quick (and quite messy) brushstrokes. Before this time, artists tried to make the surface of their artwork look much neater, and you couldn't really see any of the brushstrokes.

SHOW IMAGE #3 ON ELMO (WHEAT FIELD W/ CYPRESSES)

Van Gogh was influenced by the Impressionist style but he was a little bit different. Instead of concentrating on the appearance of the person or landscape he was painting, he focused on his emotions and FEELINGS. Van Gogh wanted to show his own personal experience in his paintings, whether he was feeling happy or sad. To do this, he often used bold, bright colors with short brush strokes of thick paint. He often covered the canvas with wildly swirling lines. His paintings are full of powerful, vibrant MOVEMENT and TEXTURE.

His style of painting is known as Post-Impressionism. The word "post" means "after" and this style came right after Impressionism. Let's look at this famous landscape by van Gogh called Wheat Field with Cypresses. {Art Reps: engage the children in a brief discussion about the painting with the following questions.}

• Notice the wavy and swirling sky {Art Rep: point out on Image #3}. Is this a calm sky? What do you think is happening? {Maybe it was a windy day? A storm is coming in? etc.}

SHOW IMAGE #4, CLOSE-UP OF SKY

• Let's "zoom in" and look at a close-up of the sky. How many colors do you see? {take responses} Van Gogh used many different colors everywhere and he never blended them together. You can see how thick the paint is and the swirling brushstrokes.

IMAGE #5, CLOSE-UP OF TREES

• Let's take a close look at the trees. {show image #5} Notice that you can see every brush stroke in the wheat field and trees. {Art Rep: point out the short brush strokes, how the "yellow" field and "green" tree are actually made up of different colors and shades.} This makes the painting seem almost alive, like the field and trees are moving.

SHOW IMAGE #6 ON ELMO (IRISES)

This is a famous painting by van Gogh called Irises (#6).

• What do you notice about it?
• Does anything look like it's moving? {the flowers look like they are leaning in the wind, the leaves look like they're moving. Van Gogh uses wavy, twisting, curling lines.}
• What else do you see? {the dirt is painted with thick brush strokes in many different colors to look a little bumpy. Van Gogh used bright colors, not pastels or dark, muted tones.}

SHOW IMAGE #7 (SELF-PORTRAIT)

Now we're going to look at a picture he painted of himself. (A picture that you paint of yourself is called a self-portrait.) What word would you use to describe how van Gogh is feeling in this self-portrait? {sad, tired, unhappy} At this time in his life, he was sad because he didn't have many friends and could not sell any of his paintings. No one seemed to think he was a good artist except for his younger brother, Theo.

When he painted this self-portrait he was probably around the age of your parents. Look closely at his face. All those lines you see are actually brushstrokes. He wasn't old enough for all those lines to be wrinkles! This is how van Gogh used brushstrokes to show how he was feeling {sad, tired}. At one time, artists tried to hide their brushstrokes and make their work look smooth. But van Gogh painted so that each color showed up. Look at the space behind the head. That part of the painting is called the background. He even painted this area with lots of different colors. Instead of mixing his colors, he dabbed his brush in the paint and put it directly on the canvas. He didn't make it smooth.

SHOW IMAGE #8 (SUNFLOWERS)

Eventually van Gogh met another artist who became very famous. That artist was Paul Gauguin (pronounced Go-Gan) and the two became friends. When van Gogh moved from the city to the countryside of France he invited Gauguin to stay with him. To make his guest feel welcome and to make his house look prettier, van Gogh painted several sunflowers and put the paintings up all over his house. What feeling or emotion do you think of when looking at this painting of sunflowers? {happy, cheerful} Yellow was van Gogh's favorite color and he wanted to make his friend, Gauguin, feel happy when he came to visit.

Look closely at the sunflowers. How do you think they would feel if you touched them? {soft, moist} What about the spiky flowers, would they feel the same way? {stiff, bristly} These are all words to describe TEXTURE. Texture was a very important part of van Gogh's paintings. We can't touch the paintings, but we can "feel" the texture with our eyes.

STARRY NIGHT

TK–1st Grades start here after reading the book.

SHOW IMAGE #9 (STARRY NIGHT)

Van Gogh once said, "I often think that the night is more alive and richly colored than the day." Here is van Gogh's most famous painting, Starry Night. He painted it when he was very sick in the hospital. He liked to look out his window at night and stare at the stars, just like some of you probably do. The stars might seem very calm shining way up high in the sky, but they are actually giant suns whirling in space. Scientists know this about stars today, but no one knew this way back in the 1800s. Still, van Gogh must have felt the energy and the action way up in space. He felt the power of the universe. In this painting, Starry Night, he painted what he felt with wildly swirling brushstrokes. Do you also feel the energy in this painting? Does it seem to move? Look at the spirals. {Art Rep, point out} A spiral is a circle that keeps going around and around until it sweeps away. It doesn't close up at the end. See how some swirl to the right, some swirl upwards. 

**Art Reps of younger grades: Ask the kids to make a spiral with their hands in the air – do it with them. Start by pointing to a make-believe dot in the center of the sky and start a circle with that dot, and go around and around until it gets bigger.

Does this sky seem calm? This starry sky does not seem calm or peaceful at all. The sky looks like it's shimmering and almost seems alive! Today we are going to create our own versions of Starry Night that show MOVEMENT, TEXTURE, and FEELINGS. We are going to make our stars swirl through the sky and seem "alive" by using lots of bold colors, short and long brushstrokes, thick dabs of paint, and different shapes.

CREATE ART

Before you begin

Have the kids pull out their pencils and write their names on the back of the paper. The paper should be horizontal on their desks.

Keep image of Starry Night on the document camera and/or display Starry Night poster. Display example from the training as well as other examples from the Art Closet. 

**Art Reps of Younger Grades: Ask the kids to practice drawing spirals on scratch paper. Draw with them on the white board.

VARIATION: THE Q-TIP CHALLENGE
For a more challenging painting experience, have the kids paint with q-tips instead of brushes. This will push the kids our of their comfort zones, and the q-tips are well-suited to the loose style of van Gogh. Place cups of q-tips on desks throughout the room and set up paper plates with paint as usual. Supplies are in the Art Closet.

PENCILS

1. Using pencils, draw the outside lines of the cypress TREE in the foreground. Draw it to one side of the paper or the other, not in the middle.  
2. Next, using your pencils, draw a horizon line of HILLS. Children can measure one hand's width up from the bottom of the paper and put a small mark. We want to save lots of space for the sky. Draw a wavy line horizontally across the paper, from one end all the way to the other. Let the line wave and curve, like real hills do. Remember to stop at the Cypress tree, imagine the line through the tree, and then pick up again on the other side. Art Reps: You can point out on the image of Starry Night that the horizon line is not even, it starts lower and ends higher.

PAINT

Save light blue and dark blue for the background of the sky.

Art Reps, as long as you think your class will behave :) ask the kids to STAND UP to paint, so they can put their whole body into painting the spirals. The kids will have more mobility and freedom of expression when standing, and it encourages a loose, bold painting style that is a perfect fit for Starry Night.

NOTE: PLEASE HAVE THE KIDS CLEAN THEIR BRUSHES BETWEEN COLORS BY FIRST SWISHING THEM IN WATER AND THEN WIPING THE EXCESS WATER OFF ON THE FOLDED PAPER TOWEL. WE DON'T WANT THE COLORS TO GET MIXED UP AND MUDDY.

1. SPIRALS Dip your brushes in paint and put 4–5 dots of paint in the places you want your spirals to go. Make sure the dots are spaced apart. Be careful not to put them too close together or too close to the edge of the paper, tree, and hills.
2. SPIRALS Start painting spirals in the sky using bright bold colors like van Gogh did (without blending them). Save blue for the sky behind the stars. To paint a spiral, start in the middle (at the dot) and swirl around and around outwards, keeping your lines loose. Go around once or twice in one color and then switch colors. You can switch colors a 3rd or 4th time as you create your spirals. Paint in long and short brushstrokes without blending or mixing the colors. Make sure to clean your brush in the water and blot it on the paper towel between colors. If your spiral bumps into the line of the hills, another star, or the edge of the paper, you need to "jump" –– imagine how it would continue and then start again. For Younger Grades: Tell or show the kids how to dab the paint gently on the paper and then lift the brush so the colors don't blend.
3. BACKGROUND SKY Fill in the rest of the sky with light BLUE and/or dark blue paint. Use short brush strokes to create movement and texture. Add pops of color with small dabs of pink, purple, yellow, etc. Add a moon if you like.
4. TREE - Using BLACK, paint the outside lines of your tree using short brushstrokes to show texture. You can continue using black to fill in your tree or you can add 2–3 other colors of your choice. Keep the brush strokes short — wavy lines, dashes, dots — to show texture and movement.
5. HILLS A new texture technique. Fill the hills with lines that all go IN THE SAME DIRECTION. It will look like fields of grass from the air. You can use different colors of paint if you like. Try adding black lines in between the colored lines to add richness and depth, so the painting doesn't look flat.  
6. VILLAGE At the end if you have time, the kids can add a few more very simple details like small houses or a few more small trees (black paint). For the houses, the kids should use a color that stands out from the background (red house on a yellow hill, white house on a green hill, and so on). Younger Grades: To paint a house, ask the kids to draw a single rectangle with a triangle on the top for a roof. Keep all the shapes super simple and lose.

Congratulations! You've painted Starry Night in the style of Vincent van Gogh. Please leave artwork with the teachers. The teachers can send the artwork home or keep it to display in the classroom.