Vincent Paints His House

Starred review from June 1, 2015
The conceit at the center of this celebration of art and color? Tell a pleasingly repetitive tale featuring the Dutch post-impressionist Vincent Van Gogh without ever mentioning his full name. The eponymous Vincent (big-headed, bug-eyed, and ginger-bearded) sets out to paint the exterior of a charming little stucco house reminiscent of the iconic The Yellow House in Arles. Juggling a box of paint tubes, artist Vincent loads up his palette with a variety of saturated colors. Momentarily daunted by choice, he thinks, "White is nice," and selects four tubes of white paint (snow, ivory, titanium, cream) to begin. But then: "Stop!" A sweet succession of tiny resident art critics-a spider, a bird, a mouse, a termite, a caterpillar, and a ladybug-all offer their own contributions to the project. Along with each color callout, a section of the painter's palette is shown with a range of hues laid out; the paint tubes' color labels are prominently displayed. By book's end, that once-drab house is now painted in a quiet riot of broken color strokes and cozily situated under a swirling night sky. Arnold's computer-generated art finesses the pigments and represents the textural effects of this great painter's hand. Savvy parents and teachers will truly enjoy sharing this, both as an inspiration for art projects and as a low-key, kid-friendly introduction to this accessible painter. So very Van Gogh and so very satisfying! (Picture book. 3-8)

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August 1, 2015

K-Gr 2- In Vincent Paints His House, Arnold uses van Gogh's famous relationship to color as the point of entry for young readers; the artist can't make up his mind what color he likes best. "White is nice," he says. But the creatures around the house soon make their opinions known; the spider likes red, the caterpillar likes yellow, and so on. The result is a house painted all the colors, and "everyone was happy." The final page shows the house as an element of van Gogh's famous painting Starry Night. Arnold manages to infuse van Gogh's brush strokes and palette into his own distinctive art style and the mash-up offers a successful introduction to the painter, though he limits his audience with its simplicity. Art teachers may find this book a useful tool, and fans of Arnold's other work will welcome another opportunity for easy reading and deep looking. More insight into van Gogh's color sense can be found in the well-received Vincent's Colors (Chronicle, 2005), and Laurence Anholt's Van Gogh and the Sunflowers (Eerdmans, 2011) is an age-appropriate biographical story. VERDICT Recommended.-Lisa Lehmuller, East Providence School District, RI

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