Art curriculum
Catherine Craft
Are you in favor of including an art curriculum from a Christian
perspective in your homeschooling? If you are, why? If not, why?
Thanks for your replies.
Catherine Craft
Parks Family
art. There is also garbage that's called art. The program we have,
teaches the kids the different uses of lines, textures, and other
aspects artists use in expressing themselves. Art in and of itself does
not make it good.
momteach4
Mark and Bev Tindall
> Art in and of itself does not make it good.
Read Francis Schaeffer's "Art and the Bible" or the works of H R Rookmaaker.
MaG Douglas
news:3F5FD487...@juno.com...
I'm not in favor of using an art curriculum (if you're talking about art
appreciation) from *any* perspective. What I much prefer is taking my
children to actually *see* art in museums and local art shows. Meet living
artists, talk with them about what they do and why they do it. Do research
(library, internet) about dead artists and if the children show any interest
in pursuing a certain period or style of art we delve into it further. If
they show an interest in creating art I start looking for the means to
encourage them as far as possible in that pursuit.
My way of "teaching" art is based on the historical basis from which most
art was created. People who loved art found people who could create it and
paid them to do so. People who wanted to create art were apprenticed to (or
tutored by) someone who had already demonstrated a mastery of specific or
various media.
As far as perspective goes, since I am a Christian and I will be discussing
the art my children see with them, they can't help but hear a Christian
perspective. They also read or hear a variety of other perspectives as we do
research.
MaG
Catherine Craft
was wondering--have you found any curricula you like? What do you like
about it? What would you change about it? Thanks.
Catherine Craft
Kanga Mum
We didn't really use a packaged curriculum, though I have seen David
Quine's Cornerstone project version, and I really liked that. I just
didn't want to spend the money on it.
We have used:
A Child's Book of Art; Discover Great Paintings, my Lucy Micklethwaite
Mommy, It's a Renoir, by Wolf, Aline D. (I mostly just end up using
the postcards rather than doing all the activities)
Janson's History of ARt Janson and Janson hb, dj Abrams c.1997, Fifth
edition
Metropolitan Seminars in Art, Art portfolios, a series of about 11
books, edited by John Canaday
The World According to Vermeer, and other World of <insert artist
here> books by Time, Life
How Shall We Then Live, by Francis Schaeffer
The list of artists and articles found at amblesideonline.org
For learning to draw, we have used:
Mark Kistler's Draw Squad
Draw, Write, Now
and Draw Today for the one child who actually demonstrates any ability
to draw
Kanga
Kanga Mum
We approach art from two different paths, art history and art
appreciation.
As we study history, we look for artists representative of that time
in history (as well as poets, writers, and composers). We familiarize
ourselves with a few representative, and sometimes not so
representative, works of those artists.
We go to art museums (somewhere I have a long post on how to take
small children to the art museum without losing your mind or having
the guards escort you out. I can find it and post it here if there's
any interest).
For art appreciation, we try to apply principles from Charlotte
Mason's books. Here's some of what she says about art:
It would be hard to estimate the refining, elevating influence of one
or two well-chosen works of art, in however cheap a
reproduction. Vol 1 pg 131
There are beautiful lives in which there is no trace of this
separation, whose aims are confined to the things we call sacred. But
many Vol 2 pg 130 thoughtful, earnest persons feel sorely the need of
a conception of the divine relation which shall embrace the whole of
human life which shall make art, science, politics, all those cares
and thoughts of men which are not rebellious, sacred also as being
all engaged the great evolution, the evolution of the Kingdom of God.
A new Conception of Art; great Ideas demand great Art -- Looking out
on the realm of Art again, we think we discern the signs of the
times. Some of us begin to learn the lesson which a prophet has been
raised up to deliver to this, or the last, generation We begin to
understand that mere technique, however perfect -- whether in the
rendering of flesh tints, or marbles, or of a musical composition of
extreme difficulty is not necessarily high Art It is beginning to
dawn upon us that Art is great only in proportion to the greatness of
the idea that it expresses; while what we ask of the execution, the
technique, is that it shall be adequate to the inspiring idea, But
surely these high themes have nothing to do with the bringing up of
children? Yes, they have; everything. In the first place, we shall
permit no pseudo Art to be in the same house with our children; next,
we shall bring our own facile tastes and opinions to some such
searching test as we have indicated, knowing that the children imbibe
the thoughts that are in us, whether we will or no; and lastly, we
shall inspire our children with those great ideas which shall create
a demand, anyway, for great Art.(volume 2, page 262)
But in literature, as in art, we require more than mere form. (voluem
2 page 263)
'Then David gave to Solomon his son . . . . the pattern of all that
he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord.' We
have here a suggestion of the source of every conception of beauty to
be expressed in forms of art.
With this sort of appreciative knowledge of things to begin with, the
superstructure of exact knowledge, living science, no mere affair of
text-books and examinations, is easily raised, because a natural
desire is implanted. We might say the same of art, so far, any way,
as the appreciation of art goes. The child who has been taught to
see, appreciates pictures with discrimination. Vol 3. P. 78
Perhaps the main part of a child's education should be concerned with
the great human relationships, relationships of love and service, of
authority and obedience, of reverence and pity and neighbourly
kindness; relationships to kin and friend and neighbour, to 'cause'
and country and kind, to the past and the present. History,
literature, archeology, art, languages, whether ancient or modern,
travel and tales of travel; all of these are in one way or other the
record or the Vol 3 pg 81 expression of persons;… The Awakening
Idea. -- It rests with us to give the awakening idea and then to form
the habit of thought and of life.
Next, we may have poetry, or art, or philosophy; we cannot tell; but
two things are incumbent upon us,-to keep ourselves and our children
in touch with the great thoughts by which the world has been educated
in the past, and to keep ourselves and them in the right attitude
towards the great ideas of the present. It is our temptation to make
too personal a matter of education, to lose sight of the fact that
education is a world business, that the lessons of the ages have been
duly set, and that each age is concerned, not only with its own
particular page, but with every preceding page. For who feels that he
has mastered a book if he is familiar with only the last page of it?
volum 3 160
A Child… should be in touch with the literature, art and thought
of
the past and the present I do not mean that he should know all these
things; but he should feel, when he reads of it in the newspapers,
the thrill which stirred the Cretan peasants when the frescoes in the
palace of King Minos were disclosed to the labour of their spades.
V.3; 161
He must have a living relationship with the present, its historic
movement, its science, literature, art, social needs and Vol 3 pg 162
aspirations. In fact, he must have a wide outlook, intimate relations
all round; and force, virtue, must pass out of him, whether of hand,
will, or sympathy, wherever he touches.
Picture Talks. -- We attach a good deal of value to what we call
picture talks, that is -- a reproduction of a suitable picture, by
Millet, for example, is put into the children's hands, and they study
it by themselves. Then, children of from six to nine describe the
picture, giving all the details and showing by a few lines on the
blackboard where is such a tree or such a house; judging if they can
the time of day; discovering the story if there be one. The older
children add to this some study of the lines of composition, light
and shade, the particular style of the master; and reproduce from
memory certain details. The object of these lessons is that the
pupils should learn how to appreciate rather than how to produce. V.
3 p.239
Our Beauty Sense. -- There is another region open to Intellect, of
very great beauty and delight. He must needs have Imagination with
him to travel there, but still more must he have that companion of
the nice ear and eye, who enabled him to recognise music and beauty
in words and their arrangement. The Æsthetic Sense, in truth, holds
the key of this palace of delights. There are few joys in life
greater and more constant than our joy in Beauty, though it is almost
impossible to put into words what Beauty consists in; colour, form,
proportion, harmony -- these are some of its elements.Volume 4, page
41
The Palace of Art. -- We take pleasure, too, in the arrangement and
colouring of a nice room, of a nice dress, in the cover of a book, in
the iron fittings of a door, when these are what is called artistic.
This brings us to another world of beauty created for us by those
whose Beauty Sense enables them not only to see and take joy in all
the Beauty there is, but whose souls become so filled with the Beauty
they gather through eye and ear that they produce for us new forms of
Beauty -- in picture, statue, glorious cathedral, in delicate
ornament, in fugue, sonata, simple melody. When we think for a
moment, how we must admire the goodness of God in placing us in a
world so exceedingly full of Beauty -- whether it be of what we call
Nature or of what we call Art -- and in giving us that sense of
Beauty which enables us to see and hear, and to be as it were
suffused with pleasure at a single beautiful effect brought to our
ear or our eye. The Hall of Simulation. -- But, like all the good
gifts we have received, this too is capable of neglect and misuse. It
is not enough that there should be a Beauty World always within
reach; we must see to it that our Beauty Sense is on the alert and
kept Vol 4 pg 43 quick to discern. We may easily be all our lives
like that man of whom the poet says: "A primrose by the river's brim
A yellow primrose was to him, ' was that, and nothing more " -- that
is, he missed the subtle sense of Beauty which lay, not so much in
the primrose nor in the river, but, rather, in the fact of the
primrose growing just there. Our great danger is that, as there is a
barren country reaching up to the very borders of the Kingdom of
Literature, so too is there a dull and dreary Hall of Simulation
which we may enter and believe it to be the Palace of Art. Here
people are busy painting, carving, modelling, and what not; the very
sun labours here with his photographs, and he is as good an artist as
the rest, and better, for the notion in this Hall is that the object
of Art is to make things exactly like life. So the so-called artists
labour away to get the colour and form of the things they see, and to
paint these on canvas or shape them in marble or model them in wax
(flowers), and all the time they miss, because they do not see, that
subtle presence which we call Beauty in the objects they paint and
mould. Many persons allow themselves to be deceived in this matter
and go through life without ever entering the Palace of Art, and
perceiving but little of the Beauty of Nature. We all have need to be
trained to see, and to have our eyes opened before we can take in the
joy that is meant for us in this beautiful life.
Art.[This section is a sub-topic under the heading `instructors of
conscience') -- A great promise has been given to the world -- that
its teachers shall not any more be removed. There are always those
present with us whom God whispers in the ear, through whom He sends a
direct message to the rest. Among these messengers are the great
painters who interpret to us some of the meanings of life. To read
their messages aright is a thing due from us. 'But this, like other
good gifts, does not come by nature. It is the reward of humble,
patient study. It is not in a day or a year that Fra Angelico will
tell us of the beauty of holiness, that Giotto will confide his
interpretation of the meaning of life, that Millet will tell us of
the simplicity and dignity that belong to labour on the soil, that
Rembrandt will show us the sweetness of humanity in many a
commonplace countenance. The artist -- "Reaching, that heaven might
so replenish him, Above and through his art," -- has indispensable
lessons to give us, whether he convey them through the brush of the
painter, the vast parables of the architect, or through such another
cathedral built of sound as 'Abt Vogler' produced: the outward and
visible sign is of less moment than the inward and spiritual grace.
Vol 4 pg 103 We must learn to Appreciate and Discriminate. -- That we
may be in a condition to receive this grace of teaching from all
great Art, we must learn to appreciate and to discriminate, to
separate between the meretricious and the essential, between
technique (the mere power of expression) and the thing to be
expressed -- though the thing be no more than the grace and majesty
of a tree. Here, again, I would urge that appreciation is not a
voluntary offering, but a debt we owe, and a debt we must acquire the
means to pay by patient and humble study. In this, as in all the
labours of the conscience seeking for instruction, we are enriched by
our efforts; but self-culture should not be our object. Let us
approach Art with the modest intention to pay a debt that we owe in
learning to appreciate. So shall we escape the irritating ways of the
connoisseur!
Volume 5: a child has natural relations with a vast number of things
and thoughts: so we must train him upon physical exercises, nature,
handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books; for we know
that our business is, not to teach him all about anything, but to
help him to make valid as many as may be of -- 'Those first-born
affinities That fit our new existence to existing things.'
AESTHETIC CULTURE In venturing to discuss the means of aesthetic
culture, I feel that to formulate canons of taste is the same sort of
thing as to draw up rules of conscience; that is, to attempt to do
for other people what every one must do for himself. It may be
vicious to have a flower pattern on our carpet, and correct to have
such a pattern on our curtains; but if so, the perception of the fact
must be the result of growth under culture. If it come to us Vol 5 pg
232 as an edict of fashion that we adorn our rooms with bulrushes and
peacocks' feathers; that we use geometrical forms in decorative art,
rather than natural forms conventionally treated; that we affect sage-
green and terra-cotta, -- however good may be the effect of room or
person, there is little taste displayed in either. For taste is the
very flower, the most delicate expression of individuality, in a
person who has grown up amidst objects lovely and befitting, and has
been exercised in the habit of discrimination. Here we get a hint as
to what may and what may not be done by way of cultivating the
aesthetic sense in young people. So far as possible, let their
surroundings be brought together on a principle of natural selection,
not at haphazard, and not in obedience to fashion. Bear in mind, and
let them often hear discussed and see applied, the three or four
general principles which fit all occasions of building, decorating,
furnishing, dressing: the thing must be fit for its purpose, must
harmonise with both the persons and the things about it; and, these
points considered, must be as lovely as may be in form, texture, and
colour; one point more -- it is better to have too little than too
much. The child who is accustomed to see a vase banished, a chintz
chosen, on some such principles as these, involuntarily exercises
discriminating power; feels the jar of inharmonious colouring,
rejects a bedroom water-jug all anoles for one with flowing curves,
and knows what he is about. It may not be possible to surround him
with objects of art, nor is it necessary; but, certainly, he need not
live amongst ugly and discordant objects; for a blank is always
better than the wrong thing. 1 Vol 5 pg 1 "Nothing can be a work of
art which is not useful, that is to say, which does not minister to
the body when well under the command of the mind, or which does not
amuse, soothe, or elevate the mind in a healthy state. What tons upon
tons of unutterable rubbish, pretending to be works of art in some
degree, would this maxim clear out of our London houses." -- WILLIAM
MORRIS. Vol 5 pg 233 It is a pity that, in pictures and music, we are
inclined to form "collections," just as in poetry. Let us eschew
collections. Every painter, every composer, worth the name, has a few
master ideas, which he works out, not in a single piece, but here a
little and there a little, in a series of studies. If we accept the
work of the artist as a mere external decoration, why, a little of
one and a little of another does very well; but if we accept the man
as a teacher, who is to have a refining, elevating effect upon our
coarser nature, we must study his lessons in sequence, so far as we
have opportunity. A house with one or two engravings from Turner in
one room, from Millet in another, from Corot's pictures in a third,
would be a real school of art for the child; he would have some
little opportunity of studying, line by line, three masters at least,
of comparing their styles, getting their characteristics by heart,
perceiving what they mean to say by their pictures, and how they
express their meaning. And here is a sound foundation for art-
education, which should perhaps, for most of us, consist rather in
drawing out the power to appreciate than the power to produce. At the
same time, give the young people one or two good water-colour
sketches to grow upon, to show them what to see in landscape. It is
not, however, always possible to choose pictures according to any
such plan; but in default of more, it is something to get so
thoroughly acquainted with even a good engraving of any one picture,
that the image of it retained by the brain is almost as distinct as
the Vol 5 pg 234 picture itself. All that the parents can do is to
secure that the picture be looked at; the refining influence, the art-
culture, goes on independently of effort from without. The important
thing is, not to vitiate the boy's taste; better to have a single
work of art in the house upon which his ideas form themselves, than
to have every wall covered with daubs. That the young people must
commonly wait for opportunities afforded by picture-galleries to
learn how the brush can catch the very spirit and meaning of nature,
is not so great a loss as it would seem at first sight. The study of
landscape should, perhaps, prepare them for that of pictures: no one
can appreciate the moist solid freshness of the newly ploughed earth
in Rosa Bonheur's pictures who has not himself been struck by the
look of the clods just turned up by the plough. But, on the other
hand, what is to be said to this, from Fra Lippo Lippi? --"Don't you
mark, we're made so that we love First when we see them painted,
things we have passed Perhaps a hundred times, nor cared to see: And
so they are better painted -- better to us, Which is the same thing.
Art was given for that -- God uses us to help each other so, Lending
our minds out. Have you noticed now Your cullion's hanging face? A
bit of chalk, And, trust me, but you should though. How much more If
I drew higher things with the same truth! That were to take the
prior's pulpit-place -- Interpret God to all of you!" Pictures or
landscape, all the parents can do is to put their children in the way
of seeing, and, by a suggestive word, get them to look. The eye is
trained by seeing, but also by instruction; and I need hardly call
attention to Mr. Ruskin's Modern Painters, as Vol 5 pg 235 the book
which makes art-education possible to outsiders. ….It is a pity
we
like our music, as our pictures and our poetry, mixed, so that there
are few opportunities of going through, as a listener, a course of
the works of a single composer. But this is to be aimed at for the
young people; let them study occasionally the works of a single great
master until they have received some of his teaching, and know his
style.
' Here we get a hint as to what may be done for a child by the
pictures we surround him with. This row of engravings and his
father's talk about them gave Goethe practically a second fatherland.
The Vol 5 pg 315 speech of Italy, the sun of Italy, the past of
Italy, became a home for his thoughts; and we know how profoundly his
late long sojourn in Italy affected his style as a poet -- for good
or ill. Our first idea is that all we can do for children is to give
them a correct feeling for art; to surround them, for example, with
the open spaces and simple, monumental figures we get in Millet's
pictures: we cannot do better, but we can do more. Some, at any rate,
of our pictures should be like the little windows, showing a
landscape beyond, which the Umbrian Masters loved to introduce. That
is just what the children want, an outlook. Vol. 5 p 315
(included in a list of subjects proper to every child-) Art, for we
all require beauty, and are eager to know how to discriminate; v 6.
P. 14
(in a discussion on the merits of a wide rather than a narrow
education) In the great (and ungoverned) age of the Renaissance, the
time when great things were done, great pictures painted, great
buildings raised, great discoveries made, the same man was a painter,
an architect, a goldsmith and a master of much knowledge besides; and
all that he did he did well, all that he knew was part of his daily
thought and enjoyment. Let us hear Vasari on Leonardo, -- "Possessed
of a divine and marvellous intellect and being an excellent
geometrician, he not only worked at sculpture . . . .but also
prepared many architectural plans and buildings . . . .he made
designs for mills and other engines to go by water; and, as painting
was to be his profession.. he studied drawing from life." Leonardo
knew nothing about Art for Art's sake, that shibboleth of yesterday,
nor did our own Christopher Wren, also a great mathematician and
master of much and various knowledge, to whom architecture was rather
a by-the-way interest, and yet he built St. Paul's. v. 6 p. 54
we are aware of certain vulgar commonplace tendencies in ourselves
which make us walk delicately and trust, not to our own teaching, but
to the best that we have in art and literature and above all to that
storehouse of example and precept, the Bible, to enable us to touch
these delicate spirits to fine issues. V. 6 p. 59
Miss G. M. Bernau has added to the value of these studies by
producing a Book of Centuries' in which children draw such
illustrations as they come across of objects of domestic use, of art,
etc., connected with the century they are reading about. V. 6, p 175
ART There are few subjects regarded with more respect and less
confidence in our schools than this of 'Art.' Of course, we say,
children should have their artistic powers cultivated, especially
those who have such powers, but how is the question. The neat
solution offered by South Vol 6 pg 214 Kensington in the sixties, --
freehand drawing, perspective, drawing from the round, has long been
rejected; but nothing definite has taken its place and we still see
models of cones, cubes and so on, disposed so that the eye may take
them in freely and that the hand may perhaps produce what the eye has
seen. But we begin now to understand that art is not to be approached
by such a macadamised road, It is of the spirit, and in ways of the
spirit must we make our attempt. We recognise that the power of
appreciating art and of producing to some extent an interpretation of
what one sees is as universal as intelligence, imagination, nay,
speech, the power of producing words. But there must be knowledge
and, in the first place, not the technical knowledge of how to
produce, but some reverent knowledge of what has been produced; that
is, children should learn pictures, line by line, group by group, by
reading, not books, but pictures themselves. A friendly picture-
dealer supplies us with half a dozen beautiful little reproductions
of the work of some single artist, term by term. After a short story
of the artist's life and a few sympathetic words about his trees or
his skies, his river-paths or his figures, the little pictures are
studied one at a time; that is, children learn, not merely to see a
picture but to look at it, taking in every detail. Then the picture
is turned over and the children tell what they have seen, -- a dog
driving a flock of sheep along a road but nobody with the dog. Ah,
there is a boy lying down by the stream drinking. It is morning as
you can see by the light so the sheep are being driven to pasture,
and so on; nothing is left out, the discarded plough, the crooked
birch, the clouds beautiful in form and threatening rain, there is
enough for half an hour's talk and memory in this little reproduction
of a great picture and the children will know it wherever they see
it, whether a signed proof, a copy in oils, or the original itself in
one of our galleries. We Vol 6 pg 215 hear of a small boy with his
parents in the National Gallery; the boy, who had wandered off on his
own account, came running back with the news, -- "Oh, Mummy, there's
one of our Constables on that wall." In this way children become
acquainted with a hundred, or hundreds, of great artists during their
school-life and it is an intimacy which never forsakes them. A group
of children are going up to London for a treat "Where would you like
to go?" "Oh, Mummy, to the National Gallery to see the Rembrandts."
Young people go to tea in a room strange to them and are delighted to
recognise two or three reproductions of De Hooch's pictures. In the
course of school-life children get an Open Sesame to many art
galleries, and to many a cultivated home; and life itself is
illustrated for them at many points. For it is true as Browning told
us, -- For, don't you mark, we're made so that we love First when we
see them painted, things we have passed Perhaps a hundred times nor
cared to see." Here is an example of how beautiful and familiar
things give quite new delight when they are pictured. A lady
writes, "I was invited to a small village to talk about the P.U.
School. Twelve really interested women came in spite of heavy rain. I
suggested introducing them to some of the friends their children had
made and we had a delightful picture talk with Jean B. Corot,
delightful to me because of the way one woman especially narrated.
She did it as if she had been set free for the first time for months.
It was the 'Evening' picture with a canal on the right and that
splendid mass of quiet trees in the centre. The others gave bits of
the picture but she gave the whole thing. It was a green pasture to
her." The noteworthy thing is that these women were familiar with all
such details as Corot offers in their own beautiful neighbourhood,
but Browning is right; we learn to see things when we see them
painted. It will be noticed that the work 1 done on these pictures
Vol 6 pg 1 Examination answers can be seen at the P.N.E.U. Office.
Vol 6 pg 216 is done by the children themselves. There is no talk
about schools of painting, little about style; consideration of these
matters comes in later life, but the first and most important thing
is to know the pictures themselves. As in a worthy book we leave the
author to tell his own tale, so do we trust a picture to tell its
tale through the medium the artist gave it. In the region of art as
else -- where we shut out the middleman. Forms V and VI are asked
to, -- "Describe, with study in sepia, Corot's 'Evening.'" Beyond
this of a rough study from memory of a given picture or of any
section of it, these picture studies do not afford much material for
actual drawing; they are never copied lest an attempt to copy should
lessen a child's reverence for great work.
…just as children in the P.U.S. were given the greatest
literature
and art, so they should have the greatest music as well. V. 6 p. 217
. I have already shown 1 what we do, for example, in the way of
affording children familiar acquaintance with great music and great
pictures. An eminent art-dealer in London paid us a pretty compliment
when he said, -- "Lord help the children!" were our work to come to
an end; and he had reason for he had just sold to P.U.S. children
thousands of little exquisite reproductions of certain pictures by
Velasquez which were the study of the term; no wonder that a man who
loves art and believes in it should feel that something worth while
was being done.v. 6 p. 275
Mr. Masefield remarks, -- "There can be no great art without great
fable. Great art call only exist where great men brood intensely on
something upon which all men brood a little. Without a popular body
of fable there can be no unselfish art. in any country. Shakespeare's
art was selfish till he turned to the great tales in the four most
popular books of his time, Holinshed, North's Plutarch, Cinthio and
De Belleforest. Since the newspaper became powerful, topic has
supplanted fable and subject comes to the artist untrimmed and unlit
by the vitality of many minds." It is this vitality of many minds
that we aim at securing and entreat educational workers and thinkers
to join in forming a common body of thought which shall make England
great in art no doubt, and also great in life. Vol 6 pg 278 This is
the way to make great men and not by petty efforts to form character
in this direction or in that. Let us take it to ourselves that great
character comes out of great thoughts, and that great thought must be
initiated by great thinkers; then we shall have a definite aim in
education. Thinking and not doing is the source of character.v. 6
page 278
at last we understand that every one can draw, and that, because to
draw is delightful, every one should be taught how; that every one
delights in pictures, and that education is concerned to teach him
what pictures to delight in.
Kanga
Sheri Payne
> Appreciated the replies to my question about Christian art curricula. I
> was wondering--have you found any curricula you like? What do you like
> about it? What would you change about it? Thanks.
I agree with Kanga about art history, however I would add the following two
books:
_Stories from the Old Testament with Masterwork Paintings Inspired by the
Stories_ and _Stories from the New Testament with Masterwork Paintings
Inspired by the Stories_, both by Simon and Schuster.
As for teaching drawing, I recommend all the art texts by Barry Stebbing. We
have used these for several years now. When I first started home schooling,
I tried several drawing texts but found them either too simplistic or to be
a craft rather than art text. Mr. Stebbing's books are challenging, but my
children love them anyway.
--
Sheri <><
homeschool mom of 3 in Hawai'i
scrapbook pages done in 2003: 22, plus 600 punchies and 8 tag shakers
Nancy Manos
"Sheri Payne" <pro...@hawaii.rr.com> wrote in message
news:9PT8b.72502$IJ6.2...@twister.socal.rr.com...
> "Catherine Craft" wrote ...
>
> > Appreciated the replies to my question about Christian art curricula. I
> > was wondering--have you found any curricula you like? What do you like
> > about it? What would you change about it? Thanks.
Here's a book we've used and enjoy a lot ...
_Discovering_Great_Artists_
by MaryAnn Kohl and Kim Solga
It's a "Creative Collection of Easy Art Appreciation Activities for Children
4-12". There's a brief biography of each artist (from the Renaissance to
the present) and a fully illustrated, child-tested art activity that allows
the student to experience the styles and techniques of the great masters.
My girls love doing the art projects. It's a fun and memorable way to learn
a little about each artist.
I agree with MaG, btw, about experiencing art in person. My girls have a
special affinity for Monet because my oldest and I went to the Monet exhibit
when it was in Phoenix a couple of years ago. (We were privileged to be
able to attend with MaG and BOB!! and JRice's daughter). There's something
about seeing the work up close and in person that brings it more to life and
makes it more exciting.
This past year I took the girls to see "Masterworks from El Greco to
Picasso" at the Phoenix Art Museum. It wasn't quite as memorable for the
girls because it was works from a large variety of artists and it was very
crowded the day we went ... not as easy to see and take time to appreciate
the various paintings. We really enjoy that they have the audioguides. The
girls liked listening to descriptions of the painting and artist on the
headset. But of course, their favorite thing is the museum gift shop :-)
Nancy
Catherine Craft
> I do have a Christian art curriculum already. There is much beauty in
> art. There is also garbage that's called art. The program we have,
> teaches the kids the different uses of lines, textures, and other
> aspects artists use in expressing themselves. Art in and of itself does
> not make it good.
>
> momteach4
To the Parks Family (and anyone else who would like to respond):
I completely agree with you. There is much beauty as well as garbage in
art. I'd like to ask you--how do you define "good art" vs. "garbage art"
to your kids? How do you define "Christian art"? Thanks for your responses.
Catherine Craft
Catherine Craft
> I'm not in favor of using an art curriculum (if you're talking about art
> appreciation) from *any* perspective. What I much prefer is taking my
> children to actually *see* art in museums and local art shows. Meet living
> artists, talk with them about what they do and why they do it. Do research
> (library, internet) about dead artists and if the children show any interest
> in pursuing a certain period or style of art we delve into it further. If
> they show an interest in creating art I start looking for the means to
> encourage them as far as possible in that pursuit.
>
> My way of "teaching" art is based on the historical basis from which most
> art was created. People who loved art found people who could create it and
> paid them to do so. People who wanted to create art were apprenticed to (or
> tutored by) someone who had already demonstrated a mastery of specific or
> various media.
>
> As far as perspective goes, since I am a Christian and I will be discussing
> the art my children see with them, they can't help but hear a Christian
> perspective. They also read or hear a variety of other perspectives as we do
> research.
>
> MaG
To MaG (and anyone else who would like to respond):
Your approach has the advantage of great flexibility. However, I was
wondering—when you discuss art from a Christian perspective with your children,
how do you separate your own subjective opinions from Biblical principles so
your children know which is which? (Let me assure you, I do think there is room
for both, even in "Christian art".) Thanks for your responses.
Catherine Craft
Catherine Craft
> I agree with Kanga about art history, however I would add the following two
> books:
>
> _Stories from the Old Testament with Masterwork Paintings Inspired by the
> Stories_ and _Stories from the New Testament with Masterwork Paintings
> Inspired by the Stories_, both by Simon and Schuster.
>
> As for teaching drawing, I recommend all the art texts by Barry Stebbing. We
> have used these for several years now. When I first started home schooling,
> I tried several drawing texts but found them either too simplistic or to be
> a craft rather than art text. Mr. Stebbing's books are challenging, but my
> children love them anyway.
>
> --
> Sheri <><
> homeschool mom of 3 in Hawai'i
> scrapbook pages done in 2003: 22, plus 600 punchies and 8 tag shakers
To Sheri Payne (and anybody else):
I checked the books you recommended on Amazon. The OT book is currently
unavailable but the NT one is. They both look interesting.
A friend of mine is going to use Barry Stebbing’s books with her children this
year. However, she told me that she found them a little confusing. The
directions told her she could skip around lessons to provide the kids with more
variety, but it wasn’t clear to her the best way to do that. She also found the
books don’t give her a lot of context for the art mentioned. Do you find these
problems also? If so, how do you counter them? Thanks for your responses.
Catherine Craft
MaG Douglas
>
> [...] I was wondering-when you discuss art from a Christian
> perspective with your children, how do you separate your own
> subjective opinions from Biblical principles so your children know
> which is which?
That's a really good question, and one that our family has really worked on
over the years in all areas of life, not just art. One example; in art I
believe there is a Biblical principle to strive for excellence and I direct
our children that "quality" artists are those who strive for excellence in
their craft. (There are other principles but since I'm just giving an
example I won't go into others.) I personally dislike Pablo Picasso's work
(a great deal), but he understood composition, color, point of view and
technique extremely well. So while I dislike his work and can (and do)
explain why, I can still point to it and show how he demonstrated an
excellence in his craft. I frequently tell my children to check what *I* say
with what *God* says, and if God says something different, follow God and
show me what they've found. I've enjoyed some interesting and very in-depth
conversations because of that stance. Hope that helps clarify things a
little.
MaG
Sheri Payne
>
> I completely agree with you. There is much beauty as well as garbage in
> art. I'd like to ask you--how do you define "good art" vs. "garbage art"
> to your kids? How do you define "Christian art"? Thanks for your
responses.
I suggest reading _How Should We Then Live_ by Dr. Francis Schaeffer. He
gives an excellent perspective on this very question.
Sheri Payne
>
> A friend of mine is going to use Barry Stebbing's books with her children
this
> year. However, she told me that she found them a little confusing. The
> directions told her she could skip around lessons to provide the kids with
more
> variety, but it wasn't clear to her the best way to do that.
That depends on what specific text she has. They are all different. For _I
Can Do All Things_, you need to do the practice exercises A-Z first, then
you can skip around among the 3 following sections, but you should do the
lessons in each section in order. For _Joseph the Canada Goose_, it needs to
be done in order.
> She also found the
> books don't give her a lot of context for the art mentioned. Do you find
these
> problems also? If so, how do you counter them? Thanks for your responses.
I'm not sure what you mean by context.
Catherine Craft
> We didn't really use a packaged curriculum, though I have seen David
> Quine's Cornerstone project version, and I really liked that. I just
> didn't want to spend the money on it.
>
> We have used: (list of art books follows)
>
> Kanga
I looked up the books you mentioned. They look like good ideas. I checked out
amblesideonline.org and plan to look at it further. I had never heard of Charlotte Mason
before.
I’ve just got to ask—how did you end up with a copy of the 11-volume Metropolitan Seminars
in Art? I have these books on my shelf too. They belonged to my parents and because of my
interest in art, I ended up with them. I like them because although they are not written
from a Christian perspective, they make more sense than a lot of what I read or hear
about art these days. What do you think?
Regarding Francis Schaeffer’s How Shall We Then Live—how do you adapt the ideas in this
book for use with your kids, particularly with the art?
I would love to see the post you mentioned about taking small children to art museums if
you’d like to send it.
Catherine Craft
Maybe I should have used the word "background". In other words, an artist is
mentioned by name but other information is not given.
Catherine Craft
Kanga Mum
Taking Small Children to an Art Museum
We have been going to art museums regularly with our children since we
had five children, ages 2, 3, 5, 8 and 9. The reason we didn't go so
regularly before that is because we spent five years overseas on a
small island where the only art museums I knew about were too
expensive. When we got to the states, one of the very things we did
was to buy a family pass to the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska.
For the next year, all family birthdays and other special events
merited a free trip to the art museum.
It has not all been a bed of roses. From these jaunts, I have learned
more about what NOT to do, and so, by default, have also figured out
what TO do. Based on mistakes we hve made, here are some things I
suggest will make your trip to an art museum a pleasant experience.
Make sure you are all well-rested and fed (I have even sneaked
in banana chips for a toddler to nibble sureptitiously). We take
snacks to nibble on in the car or at a nearby park- this is
particularly important since we have never lived closer than an hour
from an art museum, and usually we are two hours away.
Call the museum in advance and ask if they have any special things for
children. Some museums have way cool playrooms where you can take a
break and the children can release some energy, but these rooms are
often
well hidden. Some supply packets of activities to do, but only on
certain days or certain hours.
For those of us with small children, find out about the stroller
policy. Some don't allow them at all but do allow back-packs. Some
have the opposite policy. Some rent strollers for exhorbitant fees,
some offer them free (may the Lord bless them for a long, long, time).
Look up the museum online. Find a good search engine (Google.com;
Altavista.com; dogpile.com; and metacrawler.com are some I use. I
like Altavista because it has a family filter you can turn on). Many
museums will have images of their exhibits, some even offer virtual
tours. Look this over yourself first. Then look at it with your
children. Have each of them choose one thing that they _must_ see
(if time is limited, limit their options to works of art on the same
floor).
Talk about the paintings a little bit- not too much, but do get their
interest. My 3 y.o. son is currently enamoured of all things
military, so in preparing for our latest museum trek I focused on the
paintings of soldiers, armour, weapons, and his other love- dogs.
The dog or soldier needn't be the subject. All that matters is that
the painting has a dog anywhere in it, or likewise a piece of
armour or weaponry. I would find the dog in my preview, and then,
with my son in my lap would go through the paintings on the computer
tour a bit faster, and *occasionally* say something like, "Oooh, a
dog- do you see the
dog? What do you think that dog is doing? What would you do if that
were your dog?" I do not do this long enough to bore my son.
Later go back over the online samples of the museum exhibit. Right
click on the images and select 'save as.' Pay careful attention to
which file you are saving this picture in and name it something that
will make sense to you. Do this repeatedly, as many pictures as you
like. Make sure that you include any art works that _you_
particularly want to see at the museum. This is important.
Now go to a program such as printshop (this is what we have, I know
there are others). Select make a card. Choose pictures from the art
exhibit for your card. Some of them will be the whole print, just
reduced in size so as to fit conveniently on your card- this needn't
look pretty, like a real card. Put as many pictures on the card as
you want and can fit on the page, just make sure you can recognize the
pictures.
Some of the images you will crop so that only a detail- a hand, a
foot, a small animal, a flower or piece of jewelry- is shown. Print
out your cards on regular paper, and put them in your purse.
You give these to your children when you get to the museum, right
after you've all gone to the bathroom, washed your hands, brushed your
hair, and perhaps gotten a drink of water. Tell them it is a
scavenger hunt, and that while you tour the museum, they will be
looking look for the originals- I hope I don't need to tell you
experienced mothers that you were very careful to choose one or two
particularly hidden details from the paintings _you_ extra specially
desire to see? We did this on our last museum visit with all our
children- I even made different ones for the 3 and 5 y.o.- and they
loved them.
It is also important to tell your children that this is _not_ a race-
there will be NO prize to the child who finds all the paintings
*first.* You might tell them there will be a prize for the child who
can remember the most detail about some of the paintings. That really
isn't necessary, but it might be something your family enjoys. What
is necessary is that the children do not rush through only looking to
see if they can check off the paintings on their cards.
If the museum has no online exhibit, try to find prints in art books,
or ask the museum for any brochures they have.
Now, and this 'clever' little idea is one borne of desperation and
more than one museum trip that ended in tears (mine): _Go over the
rules for behavior in an art museum before you go, as you get into the
car and as you drive and as you walk out of the parking lot and get
into the elevator and rise up and go down.
And it is especially, in particular, and most vitally important
(especially if you come from a small town where there aren't any
elevators) to firmly go over the rules for getting on and off of
elevators (I still feel kind of sick
thinking about this one). The most important elevator rule of all is
that no child gets on or off the elevator before the grown-up has made
sure that the door is being held open. In fact, elevator safety is so
important, that if you have an elevator in your town, it might be a
good idea to head over there for some practice in elevator rules and
safety first. It is not fun to realize what your children do not know
as they are shooting down an elevator in a Seattle parking garage,
unaccompanied by adults, and screaming all the way.
Also, and I speak from experience, review what to do if anybody gets
lost or separated, and what will happen to that child who gets himself
lost or separated when thou findest him and gettest him home!
I'm sure we all know to go over the rules about no touching- and I
would add that the museum guards take their jobs very seriously and
that some children
are naughty, and this makes the guards nervous around all children, so
they should be careful not even to _look_ like they might touch the
painting. I tell the children that when the guards have so many
naughty children that it makes them nervous to see children too close
to paintings, that it is good manners for the nice children to make
sure they don't make the guards even more nervous about children than
they already are.
Finally, we like to end our trip with a visit to the gift shop where
we each get to spend fifty cents on a postcard with an image we saw
and liked during our visit. The children know they will be picking
out a post card, so while we are touring the museum, they are also
taking the time to look and see which painting they would like to
'own.'
Kanga
Sheri Payne
>
> Maybe I should have used the word "background". In other words, an artist
is
> mentioned by name but other information is not given.
Ah. Well, his texts are really for drawing instruction. Art appreciation and
art history will have to be supplemented. I think he puts those mentions in
there to get the child interested in the other topics.