Segments of van Gogh - Vincent van Gogh - Brief Article

Arts & Activities, March, 2002 by Sally Mannlein

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will ...

* learn about the artwork of Vincent van Gogh.

* learn the term "line segment."

* review the term "overlap."

* learn how to apply oil pastels in line segments in the style of Vincent van Gogh.

MATERIALS

* Colored construction paper

* White pencils or white crayons

* Various sizes of lids or circles to trace

* Rulers

* Oil pastels

* Paint shirts

* Reproductions or photos of art by Vincent van Gogh

First-graders at our school are familiar with the term "line segment" from their math curriculum. In art class I also talk about line segments--small lines of different colors placed side by side to create movement of color through a space.

For this art project, students first selected a background color of construction paper that was to their liking. I then showed them how to use a white pencil to trace circles of various sizes and straight lines with rulers. They were instructed that they could not overlap any circles, but that lines could go behind other shapes or lines if they wanted them to. The lines could be parallel or intersecting (come to a point).

The children then chose four colors of oil-pastel crayons. I instructed them to use oil-pastel line segments to fill in each space, curved line segments in the circles, and straight line segments in the straight spaces. They had to use at least three colors in each space, but there could be different color combinations since they had four colors from which to choose. They had to put the lines close enough together to fill most of the space and to cover most of the background color.

When they had completed their assignment they came to the front of the room and viewed an art print of The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. I asked them about the print: What did they see? What time of day or night was it? How could they tell? What was happening in the sky? Could they see any similarities between their pictures and van Gogh's painting? Right away they could see the-same line segments in van Gogh's painting.

I asked them if they could identify other van Gogh paintings in the room. They picked them out easily after learning about van Gogh's painting style with line segments.

Sally Mannlein teaches art at Louis Wiener Elementary School in Las Vegas, Nevada.