Starry Night

This week, we have been learning about a new artist through our KinderArt program here in the classroom. The students are learning a bit about Vincent van Gogh's short life growing up in Holland. The students learned that he was a pastor early on until he realized he wanted to become a painter. They were fascinated to see the differences between his early work that was primarily composed of dark colors and some of his later pieces that included vibrant colors. They were also taken back by the fact that art became more important to him than the basic need to eat and were surprised to hear that he would rather buy art materials than food. They were very confused as they thought he should have been making a lot of money because he created such great artwork, but they found out that only 1 painting sold while he was alive. We will be looking closely at, "The Starry Night" and doing a replication of this piece, which you will b able to see at the end of the year Art Show!

Students are making many observations this week about, "Starry Night." Today, we looked closely at the exploding bright sky, the curvy lines of mountains, the little houses and lights in the town, and the shape of cypress tree. Students noticed the painting is filled with movement and will reenact with their bodies the movement of the stars and the cypress tree. 

Here is an interactive animation of starry night that the students will watch after making many observations of Van Gogh's, "Starry Night." Each day, we are noticing new ways in which Vincent van Gogh created this piece. We have begun to practice our paint strokes in the style of Van Gogh. Tomorrow, we will practice just the moon, it's reflection, and some of the wind swirls we noticed in his work. Check out this link for the interactive animation.

van gogh

This morning, students studied pieces of vanGogh's "Starry Night" in individual puzzle pieces.  Working cooperatively, students put the puzzle back together.  This activity really helped students focus in on different components of the art piece.

This afternoon, step 1 was started - the background.  "Call me, Vincent Van Gogh!"