VAN GOGH TREES WITH PERSONALITY
1st Grade
Gesture and Texture with Vincent Van Gogh: 1st Grade
Relationship to the Unit: The first lesson in Vincent Van Gogh Trees introduces texture and gesture through line and mark in Van Gogh’s landscape paintings. The book “In the Garden with Van Gogh” provides an introduction to Van Gogh’s paintings and supports the exemplars shown. A discussion about the personalities and gestures of the trees in the book as well as the trees outside will help students understand how to give life to their tree drawings through line, mark, and color. Time is allowed for students to practice their marks and lines with oil pastels and begin their tree drawings.
Relationship to Life:
Problem/ Activity Statement: Discuss and analyze Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings for line and mark making to express texture and gesture as well as mood. Practice line and mark making with oil pastels and sketch or begin tree gesture drawings.
Goals: Students should...
Understand: How to take care of materials and tools and use a variety of materials and media to produce different visual effects (MACF Standard 1.4 and 1.1)
Know: How to identify a wide variety of types of lines in the environment and in artwork (MACF Standard 2.2)
Be able to: Explore the use of texture in 2D works. Identify a wide variety of types of textures in the environment and in artwork. Create representations of textures in drawings, paintings, rubbings, or relief (MACF Standard 2.3)
Objective(s):
•Working from art allows students to see ways in which artists have graphically solved problems symbolically or compositionally.
Exemplars:
“Field with Poppies” Vincent Van Gogh
“Mulberry Tree” Vincent Van Gogh
“Tree Trunks in the Grass” Vincent Van Gogh
“Self Portrait” Vincent Van Gogh
Motivation: The teacher will read the story “In the Garden with Van Gogh” to the class and have them participate by showing a thumbs up when they hear a rhyming word. The rhyming theme will continue when the teacher introduces the rhyming words for the class: gesture and texture. Students will participate by showing with their bodies what different tree gestures might look like. Students will also participate by drawing with their finger the kinds of lines and marks they see in Van Gogh’s paintings. Students will get to choose what kind of gesture they want their tree to have, and will have the opportunity to look out the classroom window for ideas.
Topic Questions:
Closure: Students are reminded of where they should be with their drawings after one day of working. They should have a tree gesture drawing with marks or lines within the tree to show texture. There is a brief discussion in which the teacher tells the students what to expect during the next class.
Relationship to the Unit: The first lesson in Vincent Van Gogh Trees introduces texture and gesture through line and mark in Van Gogh’s landscape paintings. The book “In the Garden with Van Gogh” provides an introduction to Van Gogh’s paintings and supports the exemplars shown. A discussion about the personalities and gestures of the trees in the book as well as the trees outside will help students understand how to give life to their tree drawings through line, mark, and color. Time is allowed for students to practice their marks and lines with oil pastels and begin their tree drawings.
Relationship to Life:
- Instructional Importance: Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork reflects the importance of gesture and texture in artmaking as well as the effect it has on the emotional impact and style of the artwork. Engaging students in a discussion about lines and mark making to create gesture and texture will help students plan their tree drawing.
- Developmental Needs: Students in the Symbol Making stage are working on developing a system of visual communication. This is the time when they most enjoy their work, and are more interested in the process of making rather than the end product. Objects in their composition are beginning to form around a baseline and color may begin to represent realistic color. They also are beginning to discern differences in styles of artwork and recognize different mediums (Kerlavage, 1998, pp. 43-50).
Problem/ Activity Statement: Discuss and analyze Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings for line and mark making to express texture and gesture as well as mood. Practice line and mark making with oil pastels and sketch or begin tree gesture drawings.
Goals: Students should...
Understand: How to take care of materials and tools and use a variety of materials and media to produce different visual effects (MACF Standard 1.4 and 1.1)
Know: How to identify a wide variety of types of lines in the environment and in artwork (MACF Standard 2.2)
Be able to: Explore the use of texture in 2D works. Identify a wide variety of types of textures in the environment and in artwork. Create representations of textures in drawings, paintings, rubbings, or relief (MACF Standard 2.3)
Objective(s):
- Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of line and mark in artmaking.
- Analyze and apply Vincent Van Gogh’s approach to showing texture and gesture through line and mark.
- Identify texture and gesture in the environment and in the exemplar paintings.
- Use oil pastels to make marks and lines that suggest texture and gesture.
- Formal Concepts:
- Line can be thick, thin, or curved.
- Line can be used to invent forms.
- Texture can be used to create surface variety.
- Texture can add detail to an object.
- Balance can be achieved through the arrangement of line, shape, color, texture, space, or form within a composition.
- Unity can be achieved through the repetition of line, shape, color, texture, space, or form in a composition.
- Rhythm can be achieved by varying the size of line, color, texture, shape, and form.
- Artistic Behaviors:
•Working from art allows students to see ways in which artists have graphically solved problems symbolically or compositionally.
Exemplars:
“Field with Poppies” Vincent Van Gogh
“Mulberry Tree” Vincent Van Gogh
“Tree Trunks in the Grass” Vincent Van Gogh
“Self Portrait” Vincent Van Gogh
Motivation: The teacher will read the story “In the Garden with Van Gogh” to the class and have them participate by showing a thumbs up when they hear a rhyming word. The rhyming theme will continue when the teacher introduces the rhyming words for the class: gesture and texture. Students will participate by showing with their bodies what different tree gestures might look like. Students will also participate by drawing with their finger the kinds of lines and marks they see in Van Gogh’s paintings. Students will get to choose what kind of gesture they want their tree to have, and will have the opportunity to look out the classroom window for ideas.
Topic Questions:
- Where do you see texture in Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings?
- Where do you see gesture in Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings?
- What kinds of lines does Vincent Van Gogh use? Can you dry those lines with your finger?
- What kind of mood do you think these paintings have? Are the trees happy? Sad?
- What do you know about trees? Where is the trunk? Where are the branches?
- How to trees look in different seasons? What do they look like in the fall? What do they look like in winter? What do they look like in spring and summer?
- What is texture? What is gesture? Where do you see these things in your environment?
- What would a sad tree look like? What would a happy tree look like?
- How can you give an emotion or personality to your tree by using gesture?
- If you were depict a tree with a certain emotion and gesture, what would it look like?
- How will you show texture in your tree? What kind of lines or marks can you make?
- What colors could you use to draw your tree?
Closure: Students are reminded of where they should be with their drawings after one day of working. They should have a tree gesture drawing with marks or lines within the tree to show texture. There is a brief discussion in which the teacher tells the students what to expect during the next class.