Teaching Art Appreciation to Children: Van Gogh's The Starry Night

One of the most lovely and serene of Vincent van Gogh's paintings entitled " The Starry Night", is perfect to use as the example for a children's van Gogh art appreciation project.

Many of the now classic master artists, like Vincent van Gogh have a colourful and sometimes difficult personal history. Perhaps that only adds to the depth and character of their works. Great artistic genius often doesn't fit a perfect mold. It is that rebellious difference that has continually changed and reformed the art world. The battle for the artist to get his or her work accepted has historically been one of shocking the then current art world out if its complacency and closed mindedness. This struggle makes both the critics and the viewers expand their definition of art.

The painting and the troubled life of van Gogh, inspired the touching and lilting song "Vincent", otherwise known as "Starry Starry Night", by Don Mclean.

For the information on his life, the most obvious tidbit that people remember and react to, was the severing of his own ear. It was actually the lobe of his ear.

His most famous pieces include the now astronomically priced and Sunflower series, one of which sold in 1989 for 70.9 million dollars.

Again, remember to provide some historical facts, background and art style to the children, and show examples of his work, asking for their feelings about the paintings.

For this project you will need the following supplies:

One or two pieces of black construction paper. (Two if they want to do more than one picture. These are fun and simple to do, and they may feel inspired to create more than one.)

Coloured chalks and/or coloured pencils. ( Either method will work, since either method gives the children a different medium to try. They both work well on black construction paper. You can even use simple sidewalk or school chalks. You do not have to invest in expensive art chalks to do this project. )

Hairspray or setting spray to help keep the chalks from smearing, after the picture is done. You don't need this if you are just using coloured pencils.