Project #3 Fingerpainting

I call my project #3 “Pasture from the Porch.” It is my attempt to paint a landscape using several of Van Gogh’s techniques. Van Gogh’s is known for his vivid colors, use of lines, and presence of emotional impact. His art gained popularity after he died. He did many paintings, drawings and sketches many of which were self portraits and landscapes. In my painting, “Pasture from the Porch,” I used the element of lines, one of Van Gogh’s techniques. I used my fingers to make lines which gave shape to the clouds and the sky in which I used lines to try to represent wind. I also used my fingers to make lines which composed the branches of the pine tree and horizontal lines on the lower part of the barn to represent siding. I also used lines and varied tints to shape the grassy hills behind the barn. I created depth making the black cows on the far hill represented by small black dots while the cows on the hill closer to the viewer are images that are larger than but not as big as they would be if they were next to the barn.

I would use this as an example if I were to have my students do a painting that is done exhibiting some of Van Gogh’s technique(s). We would first spend some time studying Van Gogh, including his techniques and his impact as an artist. Then I would instruct the students that they paint a landscape scene using one of more of Van Gogh’s techniques. They could pretend they are painting a scence viewed from a window in a car or from a house or just a scence from their imagination. I would have them do the painting with their fingers because not only do you get to experience the various paint textures, it’s a unique way to experiment by blending colors and forming lines.