Painting like Van Gogh

We started out by reading this book about Van Gogh. I have to say, I am very impressed with these books, they are just the right level and have just enough information without it getting boring. Anyway, we studied Van Goghs paintings and Ebi-kun noted that he used very thick paint and you could see the paint stokes clearly.

Whilst Ebi-kun did a quiz I had prepared on Van Gogh I mixed up the paints for his impasto painting, I used powdered tempera and added in white flour, about equal amount to the paint, plus water until it made a really thick paint. We talked about how landscape painting are often split into three parts, the foreground, middle area and the sky, so Ebi-kun started with a rough sketch then got to work with the gooey paint and a wooden coffee mixer (thank you Starbucks)

I really need to remember to buy some proper yellow paint we only have yellow ochre and well, it looks like baby poo - enough said!.

He piled the paint on really thick and we used a canvas for the base, I don't think paper or card even would have held up, I picked the canvas up from Daiso, they sell them in different shapes and sizes. I gave him some tips like starting from the top and working down and to make sure he covered all the canvas.

With the paint being so thick it did take a while to dry and it did crack a bit (looks like a really old painting now), he did a great job and was very pleased with himself.

 Close up of the sky, it doesn't have the shine that oil paints have, maybe a layer of varnish will do the trick?

And what was I doing whilst he was having all the fun? Joining in, here is my version...