Studying Vincent Van Gogh

Today we studied the life and works of Vincent Van Gogh (from this book) and finished up our Art Week, which began week after school ended (does anybody else feel summer may be busier than the school year?)  My kids wanted to know why he cut off his ear.  As an adult, reading about his life, I would venture to guess the guy was manic depressive.  Sad, sad life; however he was a brilliant artist, and I hope my kids got a sense of that as we tried to imitate his art form. 

With some inspiration from this book:

we tried to recreate this:

and this:

(sorry for the poor pictures!)

I used Crayola kids' washable paints and mixed them with about a tablespoon of flour, and thinned them with water until it was thicker than normal consistency, but not a paste.  We then applied the paint to black paper with popsicle sticks.  It allowed the kids to explore art differently, and I think they had fun with it, especially Irelynd, my hands-on, creative, art-loving child.  I had to get them out of the thinking of trying to spread it so it wasn't gloppy on the page.  I stressed how Vincent would sometimes use paint right out of the tube, without mixing his colors first.  He painted with a lot of emotion and vibrancy, and there is a lot of movement and life to his paintings.  I tried to encourage my kids to be free and enjoy the process, even if it wasn't "perfect."  I didn't get any pictures of the process, with the kids, but here is Savannah's attempt at Starry Night:

The hole occured during the drying process.

And here is mine of the same thing:

Painting with popsicle sticks is not easy!

And here is Irelynd's attempt at Sunflowers (ok, I pitched in to help her, since after everyone else was almost done, she was still sitting there staring at her paper!) 

I thought hers was the best though.  I found it interesting to observe her perception and astuteness while we were studying different artists.  She picked up on more things than I did, and had interesting observations to make about the various artists' works.  I think the kids had fun with this unit; I know we are all excited to start our "Around the World" unit this week.  We plan on studying India, France, China, Italy, Australia, and maybe one more.