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To celebrate Van Gogh’s birthday in 2009, the whole school responded to his artworks by studying selected pieces. The children in grades 5 and 6 chose the oil painting ‘Sunflowers'. This was of particular relevance as they had watched huge sunflowers grow in their sustainable garden in the school grounds.
We began by examining Van Gogh’s painting and explored the patterns, lines and colour in the sunflowers. They made several sketches using only Noris Maxi grey lead pencils, highlighting tonal variations by the thickness and intensity of pressure applied in the drawing process.
The children then transferred these images onto A3 Cartridge Paper using Crayola Portfolio Oil Pastels, which lend themselves beautifully to blending and smudging of the colours. They were surprised with the range of colours they created, having started with a limited colour palette!
We decided to take this activity further, making replicas of sunflowers in clay for the three Grade 5/6 classes to hang in their new classrooms.
The children rolled several coils using terracotta clay - some were curled to make the centre of the sunflowers, and others shaped into points to form the petals. They used their fingers to blend and join the coils on one side, so that the flowers remained in one piece. Once carefully turned, the children set about incising face of the flowers with marker lids and pointy skewers to add pattern and texture. They were amazed with how realistic their sunflowers looked!
After the bisque firing, we used acrylic paints to add a little colour to parts of their flowers, making sure that the rich orange of the fired terracotta clay was visible.
Selected children from each of the grades then set about making a suitable vase for their grade’s sunflowers.
The flowers were larger than originally planned, which meant that we were able to make another image, which has been glued onto a piece of cement sheeting. A group of children painted the background by applying the colours with big sponges. The piece has been permanently fixed to an outside brick wall, displayed opposite the clay olive tree which the whole school made together on Italian Day.
Michele Freeland-Small
Visual Art Teacher
Hawthorn West Primary School
