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Famous for more than Five Minutes
Artists

Learn about the life, times and paintings of Van Gogh and L.S. Lowry and be inspired to create your own drawings and paintings in their styles. See the differences between the nineteenth-century Van Gogh and the twentieth-century Lowry. Generate questions to ask the artists; research their lives and replicate their works and styles. Consider the stories told by their works and become a critical artist in the process!

Block Overview

Session 1 Start to find out about the artist Vincent Van Gogh

Session plan Download all files

Objectives

History

  • Understand about changes within living memory.
  • Learn about the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements, some should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods.

Art and Design

  • Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

English

  • Learn how to use both familiar and new punctuation correctly, including full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks, question marks, commas for lists, apostrophes for contracted forms and the possessive (singular).

Teaching and Activities

Find out about the life and times of Van Gogh; generate questions you would like to have asked him.

Teaching Outcomes
 To begin to learn about Van Gogh and about how things have changed since Van Gogh’s time.
To ‘meet’ Van Gogh and think of interesting questions to ask him.
To write questions and punctuate them correctly.

Children will:

  • Understand who Van Gogh was.
  • Identify some difference between Van Gogh’s time and our own.
  • Generate questions and understand research may be needed to find the answers.
  • Punctuate questions correctly and take part in a role-play situation.

Provided Resources

  • Picture of The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh
  • Map of The Netherlands and Arles in the South of France

You Will Need

  • Camille and the Sunflowers by Laurence Arnholt

Weblinks

There are no weblinks needed for this session.

Session 2 Paint pictures of sunflowers in the style of Van Gogh

Session plan Download all files

Objectives

Art and Design

  • Learn to develop a wide range of art and design techniques using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space.
  • Learn about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and making links to their own work.

History

  • Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and to use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses.

Teaching and Activities

Learn about the paintings of Van Gogh and create your own sunflower picture using oil pastels and wash.

Teaching Outcomes
 To use oil pastels firmly and with confidence to build up texture and to apply a wash gently and evenly.
To understand why Van Gogh’s paint colours changed when he moved to France.

Children will:

  • Understand that Van Gogh’s use of colour was influenced by his surroundings.
  • Use oils pastels appropriately to make bold confident drawings.
  • Use oil pastels with a wash to make an oil resist picture.
  • Gain understanding of composition by basing their work on Van Gogh’s painting.

Provided Resources

  • Van Gogh's work painted in the Netherlands (Holland)
  • Van Gogh’s work painted in France
  • Van Gogh’s Sunflowers
  • Examples of children’s pictures based on Van Gough’s Sunflowers

You Will Need

  • Oil pastels and thin paint or
  • Concentrated colour powder paint

Session 3 Paint a picture inspired by Van Gogh's The Starry Night

Session plan Download all files

Objectives

History

  • Learn about the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements. Some should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods.

Art and Design

  • Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.
  • Develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space.

Teaching and Activities

Find out more about the life of Van Gogh; study his painting The Starry Night and make your own starry night picture using oil pastels and paint.

Teaching Outcomes
 To understand some of the events in Van Gogh’s life and what inspired him.
To express feelings about a painting and explore it by copying the style and composition.

Children will:

  • Understand some of the sources by which we gain historical knowledge.
  • Learn about some of the events in Van Gogh’s life.
  • Produce a picture based on The Starry Night.

You Will Need

  • An image of The Starry Night (session 1 resource)
  • Camille and the Sunflowers by Laurence Arnholt
  • Cartridge paper
  • Oil pastels
  • Paint (limited range of colours)

Session 4 Finding out about the artist L.S. Lowry

Session plan Download all files

Objectives

History

  • Learn about the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements. Some should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods.

Art and Design

  • Learn about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and making links to their own work.

Teaching and Activities

Find out about the artist L.S. Lowry and his paintings of industrial landscapes; draw your own pictures of rural and industrial landscapes and buildings.

Teaching Outcomes
To compare a rural and industrial landscape.
To begin to understand about the background of LS Lowry and what he painted.

Children will:

  • Understand that an artist’s work is affected by when and where they live.
  • Learn what the words ‘rural’ and ‘industrial’ mean and compare their features.
  • Use simple shapes to construct a picture.

Provided Resources

  • Painting by LS Lowry
  • Painting by Van Gogh
  • Frame to compare industrial and rural landscapes

You Will Need

  • The Little Lowry by Catherine de Duve

Weblinks

There are no weblinks needed for this session.

Session 5 Compare Lowry's times with our own and paint figures in his style

Session plan Download all files

Objectives

History

  • Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections.

Art and Design

  • Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.
  • Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

Teaching and Activities

Study the stories told in Lowry’s paintings and paint figures in the style of Lowry.

Teaching Outcomes
 To recognise the difference between our times and the times of LS Lowry.
To talk about the stories in Lowry’s paintings. Mix colours and paint people in the style of Lowry.

Children will:

  • Understand what Lowry’s time looked like and some of the differences between then and now.
  • Look at Lowry’s paintings and discuss the narratives they contain.
  • Paint some figures in the style of Lowry.
  • Use primary and secondary colours to make browns and greys.

Provided Resources

  • Questions to ask about the video of LS Lowry talking about his paintings
  • Examples of Lowry paintings to discuss
  • Some of the discoveries and inventions that happened in Lowry’s life

You Will Need

  • Paint (either ready mixed in suitable muted colours or red, green, blue and orange to mix into browns and greys)
  • Paper
  • Brushes

Session 6 Discuss the contributions of Lowry and Van Gogh

Session plan Download all files

Objectives

History

  • Learn about changes within living memory; where appropriate, these should be used to reveal aspects of change in national life.
  • Learn about the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements. Some should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods.

Art and Design

  • Use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination.
  • Develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space.

Teaching and Activities

Consider the contrast in the environment and times of Van Gogh and Lowry; produce artwork inspired by Lowry; finally reflect on the work of these two artists and decide which paintings you like best and why.

Teaching Outcomes
 To understand the difficulties that Van Gogh and Lowry faced in their own times.
To make a painting inspired by the people and buildings in LS Lowry’s paintings

Children will:

  • Understand the struggles that artists sometimes have to make their work understood and appreciated.
  • Look in detail at some of Lowry’s work and interpret the narrative.
  • Produce paintings of industrial buildings and crowds to form part of a big display.

Provided Resources

  • Information sheet covering Lowry paintings of everyday events

You Will Need

  • A4 cartridge paper
  • Paint and brushes

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