Art Masterpiece: Sunflowers, by Vincent van Gogh
Keywords: Still life, Texture: real and implied
Grade(s): K – 1st
Activity: Still life texture collage
Meet the Artist:
• Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853 in the Netherlands.
• He wanted to be a preacher, then he taught as a schoolteacher in England,
and then van Gogh became an art dealer.
• Van Gogh spent two years honing his drawing skills before he allowed
himself to use color or paint. He was almost entirely self-taught.
• His closest friend and biggest supporter was his brother Theo. In 1886 van
Gogh moved to Paris, France, to live by his brother Theo. Theo van Gogh
was an art dealer who also supported Vincent financially. Vincent spent his
life in poverty, choosing to spend money on paints rather than food to eat.
Theo made sure Vincent had money for food and rent.
• Van Gogh’s early paintings portrayed the lives of poor farmers and coal
miners. The colors he used were dull and dark.
• Later, van Gogh was strongly influenced by the impressionists of the day.
With time he became much bolder in his paintings. He began to use
slashing brush strokes and clear, bright colors.
Chandler Unified School District Art Masterpiece Program, Chandler, Arizona, USA
• Van Gogh was a pioneer for a style of art called “expressionism.”
Expressionists profoundly show their emotions through their paintings.
• Van Gogh would paint continuously, even when the sun would go down he
would continue to paint by sticking candles in the brim of his hat.
• Van Gogh never felt that his art was appreciated, which pained him very
much. It wasn’t entirely true; many of his fellow painters saw him as a
genius.
• Van Gogh was a prolific painter and near the end of his life, painted 70
paintings in 70 days. His career lasted only ten years but during that time,
van Gogh created approximately 875 paintings and 1100 drawings.
• Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime, for $80. Today, his
paintings are some of the most expensive in the world; some have sold for
up to 50 and 60 million dollars.
• After van Gogh’s death (1890), it was it was his brother Theo’s wife that
made ensured that Vincent Van Gogh got the attention he deserved. She
made sure that all of Vincent’s artwork was saved.
• There is now a Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Looking at the Artwork:
Vincent van Gogh actually painted two series of sunflowers. The first
executed in Paris in 1887 depicted the flowers lying on the ground. The second
set executed a year later in Arles show bouquets of sunflowers in a vase. One
piece went to decorate his friend Paul Gauguin’s bedroom.
Can you see why art dealers 100 years ago did not like this painting?
People expected a painting of a vase of flowers to be soft, light and peaceful. This
painting does not portray in this way. Van Gogh’s sunflowers look almost as if
they are on fire. Their stems and petals twist and curl, and the flowers look like
they’ve been stuffed into the vase rather than artistically arranged. Today, it is
the naturalness of the painting that makes it so appealing.
Van Gogh’s quick brush strokes capture the simple beauty of the
sunflowers. We wouldn’t feel the same way about these flowers if Van Gogh had
chosen the most perfectly-formed blossoms and then arranged them carefully in
an elegant vase. That would have emphasized the artist’s skill; instead Van Gogh
chose to show joy through the carefree, realness of the flowers.
Chandler Unified School District Art Masterpiece Program, Chandler, Arizona, USA
Definitions:
Texture: an element of art which is used to describe either the way a threedimensional work actually feels when touched (real texture), or the visual "feel"
of a two-dimensional work (implied texture.) Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers has
both real and implied texture. Take rocks, for example. A real, three-dimensional
rock might feel rough or smooth, and definitely feels hard when touched or
picked up. A painter, depicting a rock, would create the illusions of these qualities
through use of color, line, shape, etc.
Still-life: A still life is a work of art depicting commonplace objects which may be
either natural (food, flowers, plants, rocks, or shells) or man-made (drinking
glasses, books, vases, jewelry, coins, and so on).
Discussion:
1. What do we see? (Vase of sunflowers sitting on a table)
2. How many are there?
3. Do they all look the same?
4. If you could reach in and feel the flowers and the vase how would you
describe what you feel? This is called TEXTURE.
5. How does the artist paint different textures? Study print for brush strokes.
Sometimes Vincent would apply the paint so thick that it would stick away
from the canvas and create a bumpy applied texture. Other times the
movement of the brush would create an implied texture.
Materials Needed:
• Photocopies of the following, one sheet per student:
Pale blue construction paper (9”x12”) with vase on paper
Yellow construction paper of sunflower leaves
(Templates are at the end of the lesson.)
• 2” circle, pre-cut out of brown construction paper. Most schools’ work
rooms will have a 2” die cut that can be used to cut these out.
• Crayons or markers: green for the stem and leaves, and other colors to
color in vase if desired
• Sunflower seeds
• Elmer’s Glue, one per student
Chandler Unified School District Art Masterpiece Program, Chandler, Arizona, USA
• Scissors, one per student
Please Note: Make sure the blue paper is photocopied before you go into the
classroom. You will also want to have the brown 2” circles cut ahead of time. The
“Parents Note” can be pre-mounted to the back of the light blue construction
paper.
Process:
1. Hand out the sheet of yellow petal construction paper, one per child.
2. Have the children cut out the petals.
3. Once they have finished cutting out the petals, have them raise their hands
and then give them a piece of the blue construction paper with vase.
4. Have them draw with a green marker or crayon a single green stem.
5. Next, have them draw leaves coming out of the lower part of the stem.
6. Have them arrange their petals in a circular pattern to resemble flower
petals. Have them glue the petals onto the pale blue sheet where their
stem ends.
7. Have them use the crayons (or markers) to color the vase. Encourage them
to use different colors and patterns.
8. Next hand out the brown 2” circle and have them glue to the center of their
flower.
9. Have the children raise their hands when they have the brown circle glued
on…they are ready for the sunflower seeds.
10.Bring around the bag of sunflower seeds and have the children grab a small
handful.
11.Have the students put glue on the brown circle and then have them place
their sunflower seeds on the gluey brown circle.
12.Have the students write their name, if they can, in the lower left hand
corner of blue construction paper, or on the vase, like van Gogh did.
13.Let their artwork air-dry for several hours before hanging for display.
***BONUS***
14.If there is time, you can have the students use a pencil to curl the yellow
sunflower petals—just roll the yellow paper around a pencil to curl. It will
give the project even more texture!
Chandler Unified School District Art Masterpiece Program, Chandler, Arizona, USA
Examples:
Chandler Unified School District Art Masterpiece Program, Chandler, Arizona, USA
Parent Note:
Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853 – 1890) was a
major Post-Impressionist Dutch painter whose
work—notable for its rough beauty, emotional
honesty, and bold color—had a far-reaching
influence on 20th-century art. Van Gogh began
to draw as a child but did not begin painting until
his late twenties. He produced more than 2,100
artworks, including self-portraits, landscapes, still
lifes, and portraits as well as paintings of
cypresses, wheat fields and sunflowers.
Today in Art Masterpiece, students created
texture in their own sunflowers still life.
Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853 – 1890) was a
major Post-Impressionist Dutch painter whose
work—notable for its rough beauty, emotional
honesty, and bold color—had a far-reaching
influence on 20th-century art. Van Gogh began
to draw as a child but did not begin painting until
his late twenties. He produced more than 2,100
artworks, including self-portraits, landscapes, still
lifes, and portraits as well as paintings of
cypresses, wheat fields and sunflowers.
Today in Art Masterpiece, students created
texture in their own sunflowers still life.
Chandler Unified School District Art Masterpiece Program, Chandler, Arizona, USA
Chandler Unified School District Art Masterpiece Program, Chandler, Arizona, USA
Chandler Unified School District Art Masterpiece Program, Chandler, Arizona, USA