Pointillism Gift Tags

Next week is our final week of school before the Holiday break. I want to spend more time on Van Gogh but I'm worried about trying to fit in it with our other activities. So I think that we will use the video from the "Who is the Artist?" DVD series: Who is The Artist? Post Impressionism -- Cezanne, Van Gogh, Seurat




I haven't used any videos this school year so far, but I think this one is worthwhile. It is one of a series (including Impressionism, Pop Art, and Fantasy Art)

Each video shows sample paintings from each artist and talks about their painting style, then goes on to show other paintings and asks students if they can figure out who painted it. I would like the children to compare the big sweeping expressive movements of Vincent Van Gogh, with the controlled Pointillism of Georges Seurat. We are wrapping our knitted scarves, sewn felt Gingerbread Man finger puppet ornaments, and watercolor painted stationary sets in plain white paper and I would like some colorful gift tags. My idea is to trace and cut out (or tack punch, for students who struggle with fine motor skills) gift tags in holiday shapes using cookie cutters, and decorate them with pointillist-style dots using Q-tips dipped in different colors of paint. Doing those tedious dots will also help students realize the differences between Van Gogh's style, with its large expressive movements, and other Post-Impressionists.