Vincent Van Gogh

Self Portait, Van Gogh, 1889

There's a lot to be said about Vincent Van Gogh. In my class every day I have the students take notes about the artists. It's usually five or six bullet points and a short lecture and slide show before we dive into the creative part. For Van Gogh, I had a full page of notes. His life as well as his paintings is fascinating, and aspects of his life are reflected in his work.

Church at Auvers, Van Gogh, 1890

He was an emotional and sensitive man. His sensitivity can be seen in his vivid use of color- almost like he saw things that weren't there- like the saw things that no one else saw. He was born in Denmark in 1853. He was a Post-Impressionist painter. The French Impressionists were a group pf painters interested in capturing an "impression" of something. Basically they wanted to make a painting that was like a quick snapshot- no details, no deeper meaning, just their first impression of a scene on caught paper (well canvas). The post Imressionists though, were interested in solving some of the problems that the impressionists ran into. Their work was often blurry, milky, or just plain "froo-froo" and fluffy. Post Impressionist painters like Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Gauguin were interested in taking the ideas of quick glimpses and wild colors and making them more "meaty," as in less fluffy, more geometric and thought-out.

 Portrait of Pere Tanguy, Van Gogh, 1887

(Tanguy was an art dealer and friend of Van Gogh. In the background of this portrait you can see Japanese images. At this time there was a serious Japanese "craze" in art and decorating, which really inspired Van Gogh. He make oil paint copies of several Japanese woodblock prints.)

Van Gogh had a hard time keeping friends and was often lonely. He was good friends with fellow painter Paul Gauguin for a time but Van Gogh became obsessive and even violent and pushed Gauguin away. Most people today believe Vincent Van Gogh had a severe mental illness. At the time of his life though, mental problems weren't understood as they are today. People probably thought of Van Gogh as "weird" or even "crazy," but there were no options for treatment or therapy back then. Van Gogh was extremely frustrated by how his mental condition held him back and through his life he became more and more lonely and obsessive. His brother Theo was his best friend. Vincent sent 400 letters to Theo, who loves his brother very much, but only replied with 30.  Theo was also his main financial supporter. He gave Van Gogh what he could, but it wasn't enough for Van Gogh to live a healthy lifestyle. Cigarettes, alcohol, and bread were just about the only things Van Gogh consumed, and his physical health wasn't much stronger than his mental health.

Starry Night Over the Rhone, Van Gogh, 1889

Van Gogh was desperate to find love. When he was younger, he and a young lady made plans to be married but parents on both sides refused and they were both devastated. As he got older he was faced with rejection and separation from ladies he loved, which brought him to the infamous incident where he cut off his own ear, giving it to a lady and telling her to, "guard it carefully." After this incident, his brother Theo booked him two rooms at the local insane asylum- one room to sleep in and one room to paint in. It was out the window of this asylum that he painted the famous "Starry Night."

The Starry Night, Van Gogh, 1889

The story ends tragically. Vincent Van Gogh was shot in the chest in 1890. It's believed that it was self-inflicted, brought on by his worsening mental condition, although no gun was ever found. The shot actually cleared his major organs, and after the initial shock, his condition was approving. His brother Theo rushed to be with him at the hospital. unfortunately the wound wasn't properly cared for and Vincent Van Gogh died of infection in 1890. He was 37 years old.

At Eternity's Gate, Van Gogh, 1890

The people in his time weren't used to seeing a wild and emotional style of painting like Van Gogh's. His work made it into several shows that he applied for but was generally not well-recieved. While he was alive, he only sold one painting, and it was to a family friend. Today, Vincent Van Gogh is regarded as one of the greatest painters who ever lived. His work is popular with artists ethusiasts and the genreal public. His "Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear" just a few years ago sold at auction for $90 million. If only Van Gogh could have gotten just a slice of the recognition he deserved.

Vase With Twelve Sunflowers, Van Gogh, 1888

Although Van Gogh seemingly had a troubled and lonely life, his work is generally very joyous and optimistic. Personally, I'm a very sensitive person and I relate to Van Gogh a lot in this way. When you're easily depressed you tend to be just as easily excited. Van Gogh was probably just as often exhilarated and "high on life" as he was desparetly lonely. A delicate emotional scale is seemingly a common trait in artists. His favorite colors to use were ultramarine (a dark blue, a little on the purple side- blue is often associated sadness but can also be linked to spirituality), yellow (a happy color- think sunshine and warmth) and mauve (a dark, purpley-pink).

Van Gogh's Palette

More works by Van Gogh:

The Potato Eaters, Van Gogh, 1885

The Night Cafe, Van Gogh, 1888

Bedroom at Arles, Van Gogh, 1888

Cafe Terrace at Night, Van Gogh, 1889

Irises, Van Gogh, 1889

Wheatfield with Crows, Van Gogh, 1890 ("double square" canvas, meaning the size of two regular canvases - large-scale)

The kids totally blew me away with their clever interpretations of Van Gogh's pieces. I think there was more thought and talent tonight than any other night this month. I looked at the clock to give the kids a time frame and it was already clean-up time! The kids couldn't believe it. We all had a blast and time had seriously flown by. I let them skip the clean-up rituals and work until they got picked up by their parents.

It's hard to tell from this angle, but this student made a pop-up card, but out pictures he drew of Van Gogh, then drew the paper to look like "Bedroom at Arles" although I think they colors may be inspired by "Nightcafe."

Wonderful!!

 

This student was inspired by the paintings Van Gogh made of his chair and the one of Gauguin's chair. I told them that in a way, these paintings are self portraits- the colors, perspective, and still life object tell a lot about a person without their face needing to be in the painting. This student is taking the swirling effects from Starry Night and including them in a "self portrait" of a chair with her favorite book on it.  

A lovely portrait of the artist, using his swirling technique.

This student was inspired by Van Gogh's realist work of a man planting crops, which was inspired by an earlier work of the French artist Millet.

Another lovely drawing of Van Gogh with that unmistakable red beard.

Last but certainly not least, some lovely sunflowers on a swirling, rich background. Wonderful!

Henri Matisse

 

In class the students learned about the French painter Henri Matisse. He was making work from the 1890s up through the 1950s when he died. He was working around the same time frame as Wassily Kandinsky  and Pablo Picasso. 

 Madame Matisse: The Green Stripe, Henri Matisse 1905

Henri Matisse's early works often use vivid, wild colors. He was one of the founding artists in the Fauvist movement. "Fauve" is a French word meaning "wild beast." They got this name for the wild, outlandish colors they would use. At the time, this was a fresh idea in painting that hadn't really been seen before; most people were using traditional and natural colors.

Harmony in Red, Henri Matisse, 1908

From this painting you can clearly see the inspiration Matisse drew from the artist Vincent Van Gogh. Matisse was introduced to the work of Van Gogh from a mutual friend. At that time, Van Gogh was a completely unknown painter. Just look at the similar style of the chair:

Vincent's Chair, Vincent Van Gogh, 1888

Matisse started out as a painter but in the later years of his life, he underwent surgery that left him in a wheelchair. This meant he could no longer stand at his easel to work. Restricted to his chair, he developed a technique called, "painting with scissors," where he would cut shapes out of brightly colored paper and glue them to a solid colored background. These collages are often quite large and involve organic shapes that look like leaves, flowers or coral.

Le Gerbe (installed in home), Henri Matisse 1953

Matisse's work is characterized by bright color, bold pattern, a flattened background, and often using thin paint. His favorite subjects were domestic scenes, meaning scenes inside the home. He often painted interior rooms with still-lives, like flowers in vases, fishbowls, and female models. Here are some examples of his work: drawings, paintings, and collage:

Woman with a Hat, Matisse 1905

Self Portrait in a Striped Shirt, Matisse 1906

Red Fish, Matisse 1911

Face of a Woman, Matisse, 1935

Woman with a Purple Coat, Matisse 1937

 Music, Matisse, 1938

Face/Flower, Matisse, 1948

Blue Nude II, Matisse 1952

To learn more, the website "Matisse: Life and Painting" has a very in-depth and organized database. 

As usual, I was really impressed with the art my students made. They found a lot of characteristics in his work that they wanted to imitate, which I thought was wonderful. :)

 Here are some pretty flowers like the ones Matisse painted. They remind me of the long-stemed anemones.

 Here's a portrait of Matisse that I find really interesting. This student has stylized and exaggerated Matisse's features, giving him long legs and short arms. I showed the students a photo of Matisse as an old man and made a joke about what a cute old man he was and commented on how high he wore his pants. This student found that hilarious and used it as his inspiration.

 This student did too. ;)

 This student used her Goldfish Crackers to make her own version of "Red Fish."

 I think this one is really wonderful. I was explaining how Matisse would often elongate the features on his models to emphasise grace and femininity. He would often give the women long, straight noses and wiggly arms and legs. Here, my student did just that, and also used Matisse's bright colors and love of floral bouquets as inspiration. Awesome!

 She's creating her own version of "Red Fish!"

 This is really wonderful too. She's using Matisse's love of color and pattern and also his floral, fish, and interior subject matter.

Paleolithic Day (aka Cave Painting)

(Above is an animation about how some cave paintings may have been drawn to suggest movement. By the flicker of torchlight these paintings may have seamed to almost come alive!)

In Class today we learned about Paleolithic Art. Paleo-, meaning ancient, and -lithic, meaning stone make up the word Paleolithic which is another word for the ancient stone age. It was called this because the people who lived at this time make their tools from stone. (They also used bone and ivory.) They didn't have the technology to use metals yet. The earliest cave painting date to around 30,000 to 40,000 years ago! Wow!

Cave of Altamira, Spain

These early painters made their paint from grinding natural minerals into powders and mixing them with animal fat or their own saliva.

Cave of Hands, Argentina

Why did these people paint in caves? No one knows for sure. What are your ideas? Many people think it was for ritualistic purposes- hoping for a good hunt or giving thanks for a good hunt. Maybe they painted just because it's fun! Some people have speculated that they painted in caves to decorate the areas they live but it was unlikely that they lived in these caves. The areas were often very deep in the caves and hard to get to.

Lascaux Cave, France

One of the most important elements to notice in these cave paintings is how the animals are stylized. This means the artist has simplified the shapes of the animals and exaggerated their features. We know EXACTLY what these animals are at first glance, but we know that's not really what the animals look like in real life.

Chauvet Cave, France

Have you ever seen a Rhino with such huge shoulders and such a tiny rump? Nope! This isn't a mistake though; the artists were purposely stylizing these animals. This is what makes these paintings so intriguing and beautiful. It takes skill to produce caricature at this level. They must have spent a great deal of time looking at and studying these creatures in order to render them this way. Artists still today look to these ancient paintings for inspiration.

 Chauvet Cave, France

Most cave paintings represent large, wild animals. The most common types are herbivores, like dear, horses, rhinos, bison. Some caves also feature predirory animals too, like lions, bears, hyenas, and panthers. You might find cave paintings depicting people, although that's rare. Sometimes the painters make hand stencils and nonrepresentational objects like shapes, dots and lines.

To learn more about these cave paintings, check out the Ancient Craft website. Lascaux and Chauvet are some of the best known caves. 

You might be inspired to make something beautiful after you learn about these paintings.
Or maybe you want to make a silly parody like these:

Check out the work my students made!!

 I thought this one was really cool! I showed the kids examples of the some paintings where the artist had drawn the animals to have extra legs as possible signs of motion (as in the video at the beginning of this post) and this student added extra legs to her horse like he's trotting and bucking!

 The kids likes to trace the animals in wet clay. Once these "rocks" dry they'll be able to paint them.

 She made a necklace to wear her animal, traced in yarn! I like the creativity here!

Having a little too much fun, perhaps? Getting some chalk pastel on his face!

 A beautiful, stylized bison, drawn just from memory!

 What a cute little Zebra! :)

I added some craft paper to the wall as a little "cave wall," and after a while I noticed no one was drawing on it. I went up and drew a picture of my cat, then had a couple students volunteer to be by my models and I did quick sketches of them. Well.. apparently they weren't thrilled with how my drawings turned out. From that point, it was a mad scramble for the kids to run up to the wall and add their own little "embellishments" to the drawing.

This is the final product.. yikes. :-P But that's ok. They had a blast, and bringing about enthusiasm about art is a big part of what this class is all about.  The parts they added like the horse, rhino, bison and zebra are all really wonderful. I may cut this mural down so the can save those parts.

And Friday, we learn about Matisse!