Post-impressionism for the little ones: how to introduce a child to the work of Van Gogh

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

To create paintings in the style of a Dutch artist, you need gouache, plasticine, raw yolk and, of course, the desire to create.

The publishing house "AST" recently published a colorful book - "Great art for children. From Baroque to Van Gogh. " Its authors - art critic Anastasia Postrigai and child psychologist Tatiana Grigoryan - introduce young readers to the masterpieces of painting, sculpture and architecture, and also offer exciting creative tasks. With the permission of the publishing house Lifehacker publishes a fragment from the chapter "Post-Impressionism".

Vincent van Gogh, 1853-1890

Georges Seurat had a friend from Holland - Vincent Van Gogh. At first he lived in a big city and worked as a seller of paintings. Then he left for a small village where the miners lived. There he became an artist. Van Gogh did not even have money for brushes and paints, but he did have a loving brother, Theo. Theo supported Vincent his entire life - buying him drawing materials, giving advice and writing touching letters.

Van Gogh was a very unrestrained and emotional person. When he painted, feelings overwhelmed him. Therefore, Van Gogh has always chosen bright, pure colors.

Look at the painting "Sunflowers". How bright and yellow she is! Like the sun. Vincent's works can still be recognized by their unusual brush strokes. Look at the painting Wheat Field with Cypress. The strokes are like little stitches made of multi-colored threads. And if you look a little from afar, it will seem as if the image is shaking a little. As if all Van Gogh's feelings were transferred to his painting. How did he do that? In this, Van Gogh was helped by a technique that artists call impasto.

Just as you squeeze toothpaste from a tube onto a brush in the morning, so Van Gogh squeezed paint onto a canvas. And then he smeared it. But not with a brush, but with a stick or even with your fingers. The thick layer of paint was uneven, with bumps and swirls.

Thanks to impasto, Van Gogh was able to convey the tremor of light from the stars in the sky and the feeling that the wind was playing in the yellow grass. Unfortunately, not everyone liked Vincent's "quivering" paintings. Only after his death did people realize that he was a great artist. Now you know the name of Van Gogh and his masterpieces!

Let's talk

You already know about Van Gogh's unusual drawing technique - impasto. Thanks to him, Van Gogh produced "trembling" pictures. When Van Gogh painted the picture "The Road with Cypress and a Star", he squeezed the paint onto the canvas with a very thick layer. And then he smeared it with a brush, stick, or just with his fingers. If you look at the picture up close, you will see that its surface is as if unevenly smeared with cream and now it has frozen.

Van Gogh loved bright colors, and especially yellow. Look at the painting "Sunflowers". What shade of yellow do you like best? What is your mood when you look at these flowers?

From the paintings of Van Gogh, you can understand what mood he was in when he painted them. What do you think the artist felt when he created The Road with Cypress and the Star and Sunflowers? Are these different feelings? How did you understand that?

Let's play an artist! Take your paint and get into the bath. Try to paint emotions with Van Gogh's favorite colors - blue and yellow. What feelings did you portray?

It's time to create

Assignment for 3-4 years

• You will need: egg, paper, brush.
• Lesson time: 15-20 minutes.
• Exercise develops: visual and motor coordination, imagination and color perception.

Draw the sunflower with egg yolk. Carefully separate the white from the yolk and place it on the paper. Then use a brush to blend the yolk in different directions - this is the flower itself.

Draw one line down - this is the stem. Look how vivid the picture is! But you only used one color.

Assignment for 4-5 years old

• You will need: scheme, gouache.
• Lesson time: 10-20 minutes.
• Exercise develops: color perception, movement coordination and fine motor skills.

Try coloring this sunflower vase using only yellow in different shades. Try applying a thick layer of paint and then smudging with a brush, stick, or fingers. This will be Van Gogh's favorite technique - impasto.

Assignment for 5-6 years old

• You will need: scheme, plasticine, tools.
• Lesson time: 50 minutes.
• Exercise develops: color perception, fine motor skills, tactile perception, imagination.

Tear off different colors of plasticine piece by piece and put them on the picture.

When part of the image is full, spread the clay so that the colors blend into the drawing. Color in blocks as shown in the example. Your painting in the style of Van Gogh is ready!

To make your picture even more like the work of Van Gogh, draw lines with a pencil directly on the plasticine. Use sloppy strokes where you don't need a clear drawing. Plasticine can be left in the sun for a while. It will become softer, and it will be easier for you to paint a picture with it.

The authors of "Great Art for Children" invite the child to take a fascinating journey into the world of beauty and introduce them to the main styles of art. The little reader will have fun and usefully spend time looking at color reproductions of world masterpieces and completing tasks that develop artistic taste.