How to do Art Study, Simply, Joyfully, and Effectively

Art study is all about teaching our children to appreciate, know, and love art.  Charlotte Mason says: "We cannot measure the influence that one or another artist has upon the child's sense of beauty, upon his power of seeing, as in a picture, the common sights of life; he is enriched more than we know in having really looked at even a single picture".

You can give your children a deep and rich study of the great artists and their art in just 15 minutes once a week.  Here is how we do it.  We study one great artist for 8 to 9 weeks.  The first week's study is spent reading a story about the artist, narrating back what we read, and entering that artist into our Book of Centuries.  Each week after, we look closely at a different painting done by that artist.  We follow this order each time:

• Have children look at the picture silently for 3-4 minutes. 
• Encourage the children to notice all of the details in the painting.
• Cover up the picture.  Children should narrate the picture by telling back everything they saw.
• Talk about the picture together by asking leading questions.
• Display the picture in the home.

We love Simply Charlotte Mason's Picture Study Portfolios by Emily Kiser.  It is all we have ever used and all we ever need to do a successful art study each week.  In each portfolio, you get 8 beautiful, high quality, thick and glossy art prints by the artist.  You get a living biography story to read aloud and introduce your children to the artist.   You also get a guide to picture study with step-by-step instructions, information about each picture, and "leading thoughts" or questions to guide your discussion.  So, you do not have to be an art expert to lead your children in art studies.

I have noticed so many beautiful things happen in our home and homeschool since we started our weekly art study.  My children find so much pleasure in great art now.  We get excited together about art.  We were able to visit the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. this past spring, and while we were there, we saw many of the original works done by the artist's we had studied.  Finding works of art by artists we were familiar with was like finding old friends.  We were able to have big conversations about the art and artists like we would have never been able to before our art studies.  

Through our art study, we have become joyfully familiar with great artists and their art.  We have grown in appreciation of, knowledge of, and love of art.