Post-Impressionists

Students will complete a range of artworks including printmaking flowers and coral shapes, acrylic and oil pastel still-life drawings, and a landscape artwork using the skills and techniques founded by post-impressionist artists.  Students will learn about the post-impressionist art movement, as well as about each highlighted artist and their work to produce similar artworks that draw on the techniques used in the original pieces.

“In the K – 2 category, students explore Van Gogh’s classic sunflower paintings and Matisse’s famous underwater coral images. In the Van Gogh Sunflower artwork, students will use textured painted papers and oil pastels to create a visually stunning collage artwork of a sunflower full of texture and pattern. In the Matisse printmaking project, students will have the opportunity to explore printmaking and collage techniques using acrylic paint, creating their own stamps from foam board to create stunning artworks. Students will explore the elements of colour, shape, composition, and balance to create their own post-impressionist artworks. These lessons demonstrate the creation and effect of different textures in an artwork using acrylic paint and stamping techniques.

In the year 3 and 4 category, students will study Matisse’s goldfish paintings and then recreate the artwork using collage, acrylic paint, dye and oil pastel. Students will also study Van Gogh’s paintings of Iris flowers and create their own impressionist Iris paintings using printmaking techniques for the background, and oil pastels for the subject. Students will have the opportunity to learn how line can be used to indicate movement in an artwork and how to consider colour in the creation of harmony and balance. This unit will focus primarily on composition, colour choices, pattern, and medium application techniques to create stylized representations of objects.

In the year 5 and 6 category, students will complete both a landscape and a still-life artwork, drawing inspiration from the techniques used by post-impressionist artists. In the landscape lesson plan, students will learn about the use of paint application techniques, focusing on line, colour, value, and style to create an expressive yet balanced composition that conveys movement and emotion.  In the still life project, students will use oil pastels to create a visual representation of objects while maintaining a sense of style using pastel application techniques, colour choices and directional marks. In this unit, students will learn how to use directional lines, colour and value to create visually harmonious artworks that mimic the painting style of artist Van Gogh, and of many other post-impressionist artists.