Project #3 - Van Gogh Tissue Paper Landscape

 This project is a collage using tissue paper and gel medium. I created a landscape of a farm scene, including a barn, windmill and trees. This was inspired by Van Gogh's Starry Night masterpiece. I used a 12 x 18 piece of construction paper for the background and also another piece for my objects. The tissue paper represents the wind of the night. I also used a silver permanent marker for the outline of the barn, grass, windmill and trees. Crayons were another medium used to add slight color to the objects.

An extension activity you could use this art project for is discussing different types of environments or even rural/urban communities during social studies class. You could discuss cities, farms, deserts, oceans or even forests; and the students could choose which type of environment they wanted to create.

I think the best way to implement art history into the classroom is for history class. Depending on what era and time period your class was studying, you could discuss famous painters and masterpieces of that time. The students could either choose to recreate one of the masterpieces, like we did for Starry Night, or they could do a presentation about the artist. The chapter discusses numerous ways to incorporate art history into the classroom, ideas are endless.