Art & Artists In The Garden: Vincent van Gogh

We have been busy here! Between activities at home, around town and a trip to New York and back, summer has been packed full of all kinds of fun. A Sprout Scout is always prepared to find the beauty in nature, whether that is a morning inventory in our own garden, a stroll through the park or a burst of sunflowers popping up in the median of a busy Brooklyn street. And speaking of beauty in nature, many of the world's greatest artists find their greatest inspiration outdoors. One of our favorite play themes at Sprout Scouts Playcamp this summer has been Art & Artists in the Garden. Our themes are all great individually explored in succession or "a la carte" style (which is somewhat how we've done things here). Art and artist studies have a wonderful compliment to all of our outdoor exploration and experimentation. And the more we explore, the more ideas we gather to express through art! This week I will take you through a few of of our artist studies in a series of shorter posts with some great art activities that are wonderful for a variety of age ranges.

We'll begin today with a couple of activities we did with artist Vincent van Gogh:

Starry Night: When we think about the beauty of nature, many of us envision images during daylight. Many of nature's most glorious sights are visible only at night, however! Stars, the moon, fireflies and a wealth of unique nocturnal animals only come out after the sun has set. Van Gogh's "Starry Night" is one of his most famous paintings. A canvas print hangs in our bedroom, so to provide some inspiration to draw upon (pun intended), I set it on the kids' table along with some dark blue card stock and chalk pastels in selected shades of yellow, white, green and other shades and hues that are present in the original work.

The boys are free to explore the materials at their own pace, in their own way, and even in their own space (hence the fact that S has moved to the bigger table away from his younger brother's eager hands). Y loved exploring the colors freely on the blue paper. S decided to draw a rocket ship with fire underneath. I do not instruct with these studies. I do provide a print of an original work and explain a bit about it. I might provide my own sample as well, but I always allow the boys to create in their own way. Sometimes S will have some words to go with his artwork. In those instances, I love sticky notes to capture his statement so that I am not writing directly on his work.




Van Gogh's Sunflowers: Oh, do we ever love sunflowers here, and so did Van Gogh! I decided to use collage as the medium with which to explore this great painting of a vase of sunflowers. I set each space with a square of blue card stock for the background, torn brown card stock for the table, and a selection of pre-cut shapes for the vase (in shades of cream and light brown), dark brown circles for the center of the flowers and yellow tissue paper for the sunflower petals at each spot. A second middle tray was set with shades of green oil pastels for leaves and a container of glue with paint brushes. The boys could then have at it while gleaning inspiration from a pail of artificial sunflowers, a print of the original work and a sample of my own interpretation.

 Y loved exploring the glue and coloring, laying some tissue paper flat and scrunching it a bit, too. He needed a bit more support than S, who was quite busy neatly arranging the different parts to create a "sunflower house" like in the children's book by Eve Bunting, also titled Sunflower House.

Our Museum: One of our favorite family field trips this summer has been to our area's museum of fine arts. It is so wonderful for children--even young children--to experience the great works of art on display in a museum. I highly recommend adding a trip like this to your own summer bucket list if location and time provide! Displaying your children's artwork in unique ways at home can also convey the importance of art, not to mention the importance of their art. We have gradually been converting our stairway wall into a family gallery with our artist studies this summer. It brings all of us such joy to see our family museum as we go up and down the stairs. And while the kids' art is represented in nearly every room of this house, it is especially lovely to see it so thoughtfully and intentionally displayed!





We will be back tomorrow with a colorful study on artist Henri Matisse... Until then, happy playing!