This rewarding hobby or enrichment project can take as little as five minutes a week. It may be accomplished with little cost. Here are some ideas to get your art appreciation notebook started.
Picture Study
Charlotte Mason called this subject “Picture Study.” She recommended studying one artist at a time so children can become aware of that artist’s style and can recognize works even when a particular painting was not studied. Six works of the art should be studied…
Do an image search on Google for the artist that you wish to study.
Another resource is googleartproject.com.
Paintings are viewed for a minute or so and then are out of sight when doing the art study steps listed below.
1. Do art studies once a week for 5-10 minutes as suggested by Miss Mason, spending one month on each picture and 6 months per artist.
2. Do art studies daily (4-5 days a week), spending one week on each picture and 6 weeks per artist.
For each artist unit:
Read about the artist and narrate.
Then study six paintings by that artist.
For each of the 6 paintings studied:
1. Narrate (descriptive or informative)
2. Creative writing (choose 1 or 2):
2a. Original poetry
2b. Imagine yourself in the picture
2c. Fiction inspired by painting
2d. Truism, text structure, or essay
3. Art experience or memory sketch
3b. If sketch, add color next session
Conclude artist unit by having each child state which painting was favorite & tell or write why.
SOME ARTISTS:
Ansel Adams
Fra Angelico
John Audubon
W. A. Bouguereau
Mary Cassatt
Paul Cezanne Joseph Cornell
Edgar Degas
M. C. Escher
Paul Gauguin
Giotto
Vincent van Gogh
Grandma Moses
Childe Hassam
Katsushika Hokusai
Winslow Homer
Edward Hopper
Byun Shi Ji
Frida Kahlo
Wassily Kandinsky
Paul Klee
Dorothea Lange
Jacob Lawrence
Rene Magritte
Edouard Manet
Franz Marc
Henri Matisse
Michelangelo
Jean Francois Millet
Joan Miro
Claude Monet
Berthe Morisot
Archibald Motley
Edvard Munch
Louise Nevelson
Georgia O’Keeffe
Pablo Picasso
Camille Pissarro
Jackson Pollock
Edward Henry Potthast
Maurice Prendergast
Raphael; Rembrandt
Frederic Remington
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Grant Wood
Faith Ringgold
Diego Rivera
Norman Rockwell
Auguste Rodin
Guy Rose
Peter Paul Rubens
Charles M. Russell
John Singer Sargent
Georges Seurat
Alfred Sisley
Theodore Clement Steele
John Steptoe
James Tissot
Titian
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
J. M. W. Turner
Jan Vermeer
Leonardo da Vinci
Andy Warhol
Benjamin West
James Whistler
Your favorite illustrators of children’s books
Books about Artists and Art:
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Rembrandt and Boy Who Drew Dogs
Get to Know Worlds’ Greatest Artists
Boy Who Loved to Draw: Benjamin West
Renoir and the Boy with the Long Hair
Katie Meets the Impressionists
Marie in Fourth Position: Degas
Picasso and the Girl with a Ponytail
Van Gogh Sunflowers and Swirly Stars
Matisse, Drawing with Scissors
Suzette and the Puppy: Mary Cassatt
Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau
Pablo Picasso: Breaking All the Rules
Dreamer from the Village: Marc Chagall
Grant Wood: The Artist in the Hayloft
Edward Hopper: Light and Shadow
Norman Rockwell: A Boy and His Dog
Story Painter: Life of Jacob Lawrence
Mouse Paint; The Dot; Beautiful Oops!
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
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