Van Gogh Sunflowers- Year 2

Aren't these Year 2 paintings inspired by Vincent Van Gogh simply divine? This is one of my all time favourite painting projects is great for 7/8 year olds.  Firstly we look at how Van Gogh word with paint. We view paintings created by Vincent (great You Tube clips) and the composition that he used in the many aspects of his Sunflowers series. 

 We lightly sketch the position of the sunflowers- with circles only and the line that creates the table and the vase.

The Children love using big blobs of paint top create some texture with the paint.  We added impasto gel to the acrylic paint to ensure that the paint was applied thickly.  If you don't have Impasto gel, you can use PVA.  Another strategy is to use Impasto after the painting is done to add some 'shine' to the painting. Remember to start in the centre first so as to create a radiating pattern.  Then a thick blob of paint for the centre then some dots for the seeds- just like Vincent.  Another good tip is to paint on colour cover paper so that the children don't have to paint the background.
The other key to this piece is to paint 2 to 3 extra sunflowers, cut them out and add them to the piece later once framed so that they can be glued overlapping the frame- just give that second dimension.
Aren't they breathtaking!