Van Gogh: Starry Night

VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)

Starry Night, 1889

Art Style: Post-Impressionism

Activity: Paper Collage

Materials: black/blue construction paper, colored construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, gold paint, brushes, cup for water

(this art lesson was adapted with permission from a lesson by Michelle Smit, Duniway Elementary)

Meet the Artist: Many consider Van Gogh to be one of the most expressive and beautiful painters who ever lived, but during his life he only sold one painting (for not much money) and considered himself a failure. We have a Smart About Art book featuring Vincent Van Gogh in the cabinet. If you have time, you might want to read it (or parts of it) to the kids - they typically love it. Other great information can be found here and here. 

Discussion: Focusing on Starry Night (slideshow here), ask the kids the discussion questions - (1) What is going on in this picture? (2) What makes you say that? (3) What more can you find?

To deepen the discussion, points you might want to bring out: (1) Have you ever seen the wind, or cold? We see the effects of the wind (trees blowing, etc), but usually can't see the air itself moving. How did Vincent show the air moving? How does that make you feel? What temperature do think it is in this painting? (2) Vincent used a lot of curved lines to communicate motion. Notice how things that don't move (houses, etc.) are made with straight lines while the things that do move (trees, sky, etc.) are made from curved lines. 

Activity: Have students create the Starry Night village scene using shapes cut from the paper scraps. When they are ready, have them glue the shapes in a row along the lower edge of the dark background paper. Think houses, churches, trees, etc. When they are finished gluing, have students paint stars in the night sky using the gold paint. For a Van Gogh style, they may paint dots of concentric circles around the stars, then add a second ring of dotted brush strokes around the first ring, moving out from the star into the sky. The stars will begin to look like their sparkles are spilling light into the night sky. Make as many rings around the stars and moon as desired.

Tile Wall (Marker Only) Variation: I think starry skies are so pretty, and would look really nice on our school tile wall. To do this project using only markers, I'd have the kids look at their blank paper, and then start by drawing in (1) a horizon, (2) trees, (3) houses, and (4) sky elements - stars, moon, wind. As they are drawing, reference the Starry Night picture on the slide to emphasize how Van Gogh used curvilinear lines to show movement and emotion, and encourage them to try using these kind of lines in their drawing. Then have them color the drawings in with marker.

Student Work: