Fine Art Friday

Over the years I have purchased a number of "Fine Art Curricula".  I eventually learned that my children did not enjoy them because they were too structured and had too many instructions.  My boys just want to use the media at hand; to experiment and explore.  I was hung up on them learning good technique. I'm finally over that issue.  When my boys are given gentle instruction they soar.

One incredible library find over the summer was a DVD series by Donna Hugh called "Art Lessons for Children".  Simply ready the supplies and the kids paint with the artist.  The instructor is extremely calm and constantly reinforcing having fun with art and that each piece should be unique. I think their work was stunning.

This was the instructor's example.

Lance's version.

Jared's version.

Titus' version.

Charlotte Mason's method on Fine Arts is to simply choose one artist and one composer, then immerse the children with their work for one month.  It was so easy, I jumped right in and gave it a try.  The cheapest way I found to "surround them with art" was to buy calendars featuring the artists work, cut them up and you have twelve prints to hang about the room.  (Hint:  wait until May to buy all your calendars and you can get them for $1-$3 at Calendars.com).  Exposing them to a composer is even simpler, play the music whenever you think about it and take a moment to tell them what they are listening too.  In addition we have had fun reading living books about the artists and composers also.

However, I still craved a little structure to our study.  That's when I found "Harmony Art Mom".  I don't know how I stumbled on it originally but I was intrigued that it presented itself as following a Charlotte Mason approach to Fine Arts.  I eventually went ahead and purchased the First Grade Curricula and most of the supporting materials (all except the coloring book, my boys don't even like the structure of coloring books).

In February we finished our study of Renoir and Vivaldi**.  The program does not follow the CC artists and composers exactly but I think the overlap from different cycles only serves to enhance their learning.  This month we will be studying Manet and Bach (BTW I did not misspell Monet, it is a different artist named Manet).  It's a great way to end the week or start the week slow if you need too, like we did after a super busy weekend. Here's there final projects for Renoir, impressionistic painting of them taking baths.  They were definitely careful not to have strong outlines :-)

I'm always impressed at my boys attention when it comes to fine arts.  They watched a full DVD of "Swan Lake" the other day.  I read them a short summary of the plot before and they were asking questions about what was happening the whole time.  Afterwards they even voluntarily wrote journal entries about the ballet.  Henry Trumball says poor taste and short attentions have a lot to do with expectations and exposure.  I agree.

**Here is one of four awesome videos of an artist drawing in sand to Vivaldi's Four Seasons: