Friday, March 9, 2018

Sunflower still lifes in 1st grade



Vincent Van Gogh is one of the artists we learn about in first grade - Vincent loved the beautiful sunny yellows in his village in France. He lived in a yellow house and often painted beautiful yellow fields and glowing golden cafes at night. His sunflower still lifes are some of the most well-known paintings  in the world.



We began our versions with a simple vase and table, sketched in pencil, then added a layer of liquid tempera - on the first day we filled the vase shape and the table as well as the brown circles that would become the sunflower centers, adding black dots in the middle for the seeds, which made them for just a moment look like floating chocolate chip cookies. :) We used dry paper towels to wipe off our excess paint instead of using water cups - this helps keep the paint from getting too watery.



The following week, we added petals, stems, and a pattern on our vase. The final step was to create that brushstroke-y texture all around the picture which makes Van Gogh's paintings so exciting and recognizable. We hope you enjoy our colorful and lovely sunflower still lifes!
If you would like a step-by-step "How To" for this lesson, please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 























1 comment:

  1. Love this project. I will try to do it as a fun Spring/Summer project. Thanks so much for sharing.

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