Children ages 8-14 are invited to the Cazenovia Public Library on Friday, March 11 from 1:30 – 3:00 pm for: A Visit With Van Gogh
Please join Pat Hill and Jenna Wright-Martin for the fourth and final installment of our 2015-2016 series, Art For Kids!
Come spend the afternoon in the company of Vincent Van Gogh, one of the most celebrated artists of the twentieth century. Van Gogh was a key figure in the post-impressionist art movement. During his lifetime the artist completed more than 2,100 works, consisting of 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings and sketches.
Van Gogh was born in 1853 in the town of in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. The son of a Protestant minister, he was the eldest of six children, which included three daughters and three sons. A quiet child, he demonstrated a passion for nature and art. Van Gogh struggled with mental and physical health problems his entire life. His youngest brother Theo emerged as his greatest supporter, both financially and emotionally. Van Gogh’s first drawings, done in pencil and charcoal, included dark landscapes and depictions of city dwellers and peasants.
After moving to Paris and becoming familiar with the work of the impressionists and Neo-impressionists, Van Gogh began to experiment with different brushstrokes and a lighter color pallet, painting scenes of Paris, portraits, self-portraits, and flowers.
In 1889, while living in Saint-Rémy, France Van Gogh painted what he considered to be his best summer landscape. He described the painting to his brother Theo, writing, “I have a canvas of cypresses with a few ears of wheat, poppies, a blue sky, which is like a multicolored Scotch plaid.”
The work, entitled Wheat Field with Cypresses exhibits Van Gogh’s use of bold and dramatic brushstrokes, which fill the canvas with emotion and movement. In this edition of Art For Kids, participants will use a variety of mediums to create their own work of art in the style of Van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Cypresses.
A raffle will be held following the program. The lucky winner will receive a beautiful 178-piece art collection, including just about everything an artist might need – colored markers, crayons, colored pencils, watercolor cakes, oil pastels, acrylic paint tubes, and much more – all arranged in a beautiful wooden case with adjustable trays.
Please join us for this fun and informative program! Class size is limited to ensure program quality, so sign up ASAP by calling the Library at 655- 9322.