Many of our school community may be aware of the multi-sensory Van Gogh Alive exhibition which is coming to Wigram Air Force Museum in Christchurch from February 19th - March 11th. The exhibition truly brings the iconic works of Van Gogh to life and the students in Year 2 and 6 are exploring the works of this famous artist in their specialist art classes this term.

Our Year 2 classes have been studying two of van Gogh's masterpieces - the Vase of Sunflowers, 1889 and Irises, 1890. The students have focused on drawing their own vase of irises or sunflowers as the focal point in their composition, with the use of a horizon line to give their painting perspective and proportion. The children were then introduced to a double loading painting technique using acrylic paints, to create depth of colour and explored colour mixing, to paint their flowers. There has been a wonderful sense of achievement and connection to the artwork of Van Gogh, by the students in J2B who have completed this project so far. J2D will commence their work in the coming days.

The Year 6 classes are exploring the techniques and colours used in the Expressionist Movement with a focus on van Gogh flower and landscape paintings. Each child has chosen a different painting to work with. They are learning about enlarging a picture and how to apply oil paint sticks to create texture as well as mixing, blending and tinting colours.