"An Exploration of Van Gogh's Art Techniques"

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An Exploration of Van Gogh's Art Techniques
by Elizabeth Klein

Subject:	Art

Grade Level:	High School

Objective:	To familiarise students with Vincent van Gogh's life and to form an appreciation of his painting techniques. To explore Expressionism in van Gogh's paintings and attempt to reproduce the style in their own work. To identify the symbolism in van Gogh's artwork and to see how these correlated to his emotional state. To make accurate drawings of self-portraits and the surrounding countryside. To research other famous artists and the contributions they made to the art world..

Time needed:	8 lessons.

Materials:	DVD of van Gogh, pictures and books, computer, watercolour paints, art paper, drawing pencils, sound track of Starry, Starry Night by Don Maclean, vase and silk flowers, and mirrors.

Instructions:

Lesson One
To introduce van Gogh, play Don Maclean's song, Starry, Starry Night, which is about one of van Gogh's paintings. Provide a photograph of the painting while the song is playing.

Show a DVD on the life of Vincent van Gogh to generate discussion. (Optional)

Obtain pictures of van Gogh's paintings and distribute these around the classroom, or put together a PowerPoint presentation of his paintings. Explore Expressionism in his paintings and the use of colours to convey and evoke emotion: sombre hues to express melancholy; vigorous brushstrokes of bright yellow to convey happiness and love. Ask the students to make a timeline of van Gogh's artwork that spans several periods of his life. Have them guess the state of mind he was in when he created his paintings. Read the insert from the DVD or have the students research his life to see if they were correct.

Lesson 2
Van Gogh often used objects as symbols of his emotions. For instance, cloudy, rainy days and crows flying over fields represented sadness; dark, twisted trees symbolised his desperate struggle against depression. Use a PowerPoint presentation of some of van Gogh's paintings to identify the symbolic objects and the emotions he tried to convey. Encourage the students to identify objects in their own lives that evoke emotions. Ask them to create their own paintings to imitate van Gogh's style. Have others in the class guess the emotions once the paintings are completed.

Lesson 3
Van Gogh began as an artist by drawing the countryside where he lived. Show some examples of van Gogh's drawings with a PowerPoint presentation. Discuss how he used shading and light in his pictures to convey mood. Ask the students to go outside and draw aspects of the school or the surrounding area using drawing pencils. Make sure that they use varying degrees of shading.

Lesson 4
One of van Gogh's most memorable paintings was Sunflowers, which was auctioned in 1995 for over $36 million. Discuss what makes this painting so collectable. Arrange a collection of silk flowers in a vase. Have the students sketch the flowers and then paint them with watercolour paints.

Lesson 6
Van Gogh painted around 40 self portraits between 1885 and 1889. Using either mirrors or photos, encourage the students to make drawings of themselves, shading where appropriate.

Lesson 7
Ask the students to paint self-portraits using watercolour paints with the aid of mirrors or photos.

Lesson 8
Have the students use the computer to research other famous artists and artist groups that have been influenced by van Gogh.

Research other Impressionist artists such as Claude Monet (1840-1926), Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), etc.

Lesson 9
Take a field trip to an art gallery that contains paintings of van Gogh and his contemporaries. Some significant galleries are: National Gallery of Art Washington in Washington, DC; Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland; Vancouver Art Gallery in Vancouver, Canada.

Extra Activities