Lesson 2: Recycle art
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Lesson duration is: 90 minInstructions
Equipment
Digital Blackboard/screen
Internet connection
For each student:
A pencil (grey)
Coloured pencils
Pencil sharpener
Eraser
a few sheets of paper
Approximate timings for this lesson:
5 minutes Introduction of this lesson
15 minutes Music assignment
15 minutes Inspiration
60 minutes Preparation of recycle art assignment
5 minutes: Discuss homework
Total 90 minutes
Items in this lesson
Slide 1 - Slide
This item has no instructions
Slide 2 - Slide
You are now going to give the second lesson about Vincent van Gogh. Start by asking what the kids remember about the last lesson.
They already saw Almond Blossom last time, of course, but did they really look closely? Let's start with looking at the painting for 30 seconds. Do you see new things?
NB: If you have a museum edition, use the museum edition!
Slide 3 - Slide
Discuss with the students:
Have they discovered new things by looking really carefully? Point out that we often
glance quickly at the things around us, but if you look longer, you often see new
things. Have they found that too?
Now we’ve looked carefully, we can discover what the painting means to us.
Slide 4 - Slide
Instruct the students to think for two minutes about what feeling they think goes best
with the painting and why. Discuss their ideas.
A feeling can be expressed in a painting, but you can also do it with music. Is there a track that the students think expresses the feeling they associate with the painting?
Get the students to pair up and search a suitable track. After five minutes, discuss
what they have found and listen to a few of them.
Explain that there are also musicians who have written songs inspired by Van Gogh’s
paintings. Let’s listen to one.
Slide 5 - Video
Remko Kühne composed a piece for piano on ‘Almond Blossom’ in which you hear
the blossom opening, developing from a little bud into a lovely flower. Listen to the
music. Do the students think it goes with the almond blossom?
Explain that Remko Kühne was inspired by Vincent van Gogh. Like Remko, lots of
other artists all over the world have been inspired by Van Gogh. They make new art
inspired by his work. Let’s take a look at a few examples.
Slide 6 - Slide
On the left is a painting by Van Gogh and on the right a painting by Chinese artist
Zeng Fanzhi. Can you spot 3 differences and 3 similarities between them? Take a
good look!
Then discuss what inspired Zeng Fanzhi. What did he take from Van Gogh’s work
and use in his own?
Fanzhi took the image from Van Gogh’s painting, of course, but he also looked
carefully at how Van Gogh painted. In Van Gogh’s painting you can still see the lines
made by his brush on the canvas. You can see it in Fanzhi’s painting too, only he’s
taken it even further.
Slide 7 - Slide
What do the students think about Zheng Fanzhi’s work? Discuss this briefly using
these emoticons. Run through them, and have the students raise their hand when
you get to one that expresses what they think.
Then ask the students whether they would like to make a piece of art focused on the lines Van Gogh used.
Slide 8 - Slide
The piece on the right was made by Argentinian painter Carlos Alonso. He made several paintings about the life of Vincent van Gogh in which he made slight changes to Van Gogh’s work. What did he change here? Can you spot 5 differences?
Slide 9 - Slide
What do the students think of the work by Carlos Alonso? Discuss this briefly using
these emoticons. Run through them, and have the students raise their hand when
you get to one that expresses what they think.
Then ask the students whether they would like to make a piece of art in which they make slight changes to a work by Van Gogh.
Slide 10 - Slide
We’ve seen that some artists were inspired by the way he painted. Other artists don’t work with paint, but they do look closely at Van Gogh’s paintings.
Look – here you see a cycle path glowing in the dark, made by Dutch artist Daan
Roosegaarde. What did this artist take from Vincent’s painting The Starry Night?
Slide 11 - Slide
What do the students think about the work of Daan Roosegaarde? Discuss this
briefly using these emoticons. Run through them, and have the students raise their hand when you get to one that expresses what they think.
Then explain:
Like these artists, we’re going to make our own piece of art inspired by Van Gogh!
We’re not going to paint it though, we’re going to use found materials.
Slide 12 - Slide
Make your own almond tree!
We’re going to make our own almond tree inspired by Van Gogh’s.
Take another look at the painting. What do you find inspiring about it? Write down 3 things you think are interesting or attractive about the painting. Things like colour, perspective, season, type of tree.
Explain to the students that they are going to make their own 3D almond tree using found materials.
What is your tree going to look like? Make a sketch. Use the 3 things you just have written down while looking at the painting. You can also use the questions on the board if you like.
Once the students have decided what their tree will look like, they can think about what materials they will need to make it. Invite the students to shout out some ideas: leaves, packaging, old clothes, for example.
Have the students draw up a list of materials they need to collect and bring to the next lesson. You could also go out with the class in search of suitable materials.
Optional: This assignment can be adapted so that the students create a 2D artwork.
In that case, get the students to draw a tree on a large sheet of paper. They can then stick the materials they have found on this drawing.
Slide 13 - Slide
Explain: in the next and last you will become an recycle art artist. We are going to make our own 3D art and show your work to the others. Keep everything you’ve made during this lesson, even the sketches that are not finished, or which you think are not so good.
Important: The students have to bring the recycle materials they need to make their art to the next lesson!
