I love to teach about Vincent Van Gogh, not only because his artworks are so amazing, but also because he lived a very difficult life (battling debilitating mental illness and financial struggles). He was often very misunderstood. His artworks were unlike anything most people had ever seen at that time period (over 140 years ago). Because his artistic style was so different, he only sold one painting in his lifetime, and never lived to see the success of his artworks today. Luckily, even though the world was sometimes cruel, he continued to paint more than 900 paintings.

I like to teach this lesson about Vincent Van Gogh at the beginning of the school year, as a reminder, to be careful with our words and how they can effect people, especially when we are talking about someone else’s artwork. So, we read “Van Gogh And The Sunflowers” by, Laurence Anholt. Which is a valuable lesson about how treating people who are different than we are with kindness is so important.

“People often laugh at things that are different, but I’ve got a feeling that one day they will learn to love Vincent’s paintings.” ~Van Gogh And The Sunflowers” by Laurence Anholt

Materials Needed:

• 11” x 14” heavy white paper (we used 80 lb)

• black oil pastels

• tempera paint sticks

• 2B pencils

• Artificial Sunflowers in vases or jars on the tables (I got mine at Dollar Tree)

Instruction:

Each student gets a blank piece of paper and are asked to put their name and class code on the back.

I then instruct them step by step (line by line) how to draw the vase and the table that the vase of sunflowers are sitting on.

I then ask the students to draw their own version of sunflowers using the still life set up at each of their tables for inspiration. Some of the students want to draw other types of flowers, too. This creativity is encouraged!

Students can draw everything out first in pencil if they feel more comfortable (so they can erase as needed).

I ask them to outline (trace) pencil lines with a black oil pastel.

Student’s are asked to fill up the entire artwork with color using the tempera paint sticks.

Tempera Paint Sticks are AMAZING! They are vibrant and beautiful and dry very quickly. Here are some examples of the artworks below.