Vincent Van Gogh

I am so excited to have the opportunity to study art with another group of young people.  I have learned so much since the first time I decided to attempt this class and am excited to revisit some favorite projects and explore some new ones!

We have started our study off with the artist Vincent Van Gogh

Here are a couple of websites I used to inspire projects:
http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/search/label/artist%20Van%20Gogh
http://teachkidsartappreciation.com/category/vincent-van-gogh/

We also found these three books particularly enjoyable:
Vincent Van Gogh Sunflowers and Swirly Stars by Brad Bucks and Joan Holub
And these two titles from the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Vincent's Colors Words and Pictures by Vincent Van Gogh
What Makes a Van Gogh and Van Gogh?

Interesting facts we learned about Vincent Van Gogh:
1) He wasn't rich, in fact his brother had to support him and buy him art supplies.
2) He cut off part of his ear and sent it to a woman he was in love with as a gift.
3) He only sold one painting in his lifetime.  It was called "The Red Vineyards"
4) He was only an artist for 10 years.
5) He didn't start painting until he was 27.
6) He created over 1,700 drawings in painting during his short career.
7) He thought that the name "Van Gogh" was hard to read so he signed his pictures with just his first name!
8) His most expensive painting (of record) sold for $82.5 million in 1990.  It is the "Portrait of Dr. Gachet".  Not a personal favorite of mine!

We started off the first week with our rendition of "14 Sunflowers in a Vase":

The second week we tackled "Starry Night":  Each student got to choose what size (and color) of background paper that wanted to use!

 by Sophia

 by Laura

 I love that William boldly signed his name just like Vincent did!  Guess he thinks William is too hard and has shortened it to Will for the sake of his art!

by Luke

And the third week we explored the concept of line by doing this project that I found at the Art Projects for Kids website:

and then we decided to combine 3 of Van Gogh's works into our own masterpieces-- "14 sunflowers in a vase", Starry Night" and "The Red Vineyards".  I love how these turned out!