Artist Study: Georges Seurat

Georges Seurat

image from Wikipedia.com

Books:

Georges Seurat by Mike Venezia

Sunday with Seurat (toddler book) 
by Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober

various art books from library 
(be careful-there are nudes in many of them)

Picture Study Resources:

various books from the library
a calendar (if you can find one)

Olga's Gallery: Seurat pictures

Seurat Stickers

image from Rainbow Resource

Notebooking Resources:

Homeschool with Index Cards

Notebooking Fairy: Pointillism and G. Seurat

Extras:

Jimmie's Collage

*********************************************

Art Projects:

Project 1:

See The Light Shine Boxed Art Lessons:

Pointillism

You can purchase these individually too-look at Rainbow Resource or check Amazon.

image from See the Light Shine website

 We popped in the DVD, covered the floor with a pretty 
Christmas tablecloth (all I could find)
then set up a table, the paints and supplies
 and let him get him to work.  It took 4 sessions for this.

first layering stage

 second layering stage

Final layers

Project 2:

Faber Castell: Eiffel Tower (Pointillism)

My son's version 
Yes, it is less dotty.  He went for the minimalist look.

FYI:  I am not an affiliate for any companies I linked above.  I just like them. :)

Artist Study: Monet

image from Wikipedia.com

Claude Monet

Books:

Monet Art Activity Pack
I own

Linnea in Monet's Garden (HB)
don't own but recommend this-
great for young and old :)

Some books [in the pic] were from our library.
I forgot to write down the titles/authors tho.
My bad.  Just check your library for their selections.

I have used many artist books from the "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artist" series-Monet is one of them.  I also forgot to take the pic of the Monet and the Impressionists book for Kids I checked out (oops), and wanted to include it-so I have it linked here. We ended up using Pinterest and YouTube for our final choices.  The coloring book is another great way to add in some art projects for those who don't like to draw but would rather color/watercolor on a pre-drawn page.

                                       Mike Venezia                              Carol Sabbath                         Marty Noble

                                                                                *images from Amazon.com

Picture Study Resources:

Use calendars when you can. The prints are usually very nice and large enough to glean many details.

We have a slightly different calendar than shown below. I chose one with pictures we did not already own. The one noted below is a good choice as it has many of his more recognizable prints. Or you can use art cards like the ones I have/own in the pic above.  DON'T panic-you can purchase a new set for $11 not $61 like the ad below states! Yikes!

Notebooking Pages:

Olga's Gallery
for images/info to use on notebook page

Free:

We used this one:

Homeschool with Index Cards

Others:
Homeschool Helper Online
The Notebooking Fairy
Harrington Harmonies (free for subscribers)


Art Project Ideas:

Acrylic painting of a lily pond and a watercolor tree/shadow activity.

I want to keep the art projects separate from this due to their length. You can find out how we accomplished these two neat projects by clicking here.

Artist Study: Charlotte Mason Style

If you are unsure of how to do an artist study or just need some other ideas to add to your repertoire,  hopefully this post can help you out.

I really love how Charlotte Mason incorporated the study of famous artists into the children's education.  The nice thing is that one does not have to go into some super, in depth investigation in order to learn about them.  Basically, you give it about 6 weeks of coverage.  That is all.  Folks have different ideas of how to go about it, but following the basic CM way-you do a brief intro to the artist (life/style/time frame), then have the student choose 6 pictures to study.  They will then narrate to you what they remember about the painting, along with stating it's title and when it was made.  Not too difficult.

How we study an artist:

I get a boat load of books via the library and pull what I have from my shelves/supplies. After reading a few of the more informative books on the life of the artist, I then have the student fill out a notebook page noting general life info, what their favorite media/techniques were and then have them add 3 little pics of different pieces to the page. When completes, we file that into our Artist study notebook.

During that time, the student will have already selected 6 prints to focus on.  Their task is to really look at it.  Study it and note any details they find. Also, they have to learn it's title and when it was made. Each week, they do one print. Of course, if they want to do more, they can. They will simply come to me at the end of the week and tell me everything they can recall about the painting (I will have the print in front of me to confirm the existence of said details) then place the print on a wall somewhere in our classroom. 

We also try to do an art project that reflects one of their well-known or more commonly recognized styles. Thankfully, I won (via a blog giveaway) a whole set of art projects from See the Light that we are currently using.  I also have the Spears Art Studio CD series with several different art project ideas that we can do as well. Usually I can find a craft/art project book (check your library first) that pertains to the artist  which I can pull an idea from, if the project sets do not have something that will work.  And for heaven's sake what would I do without Pinterest? Yes, I get oodles of ideas from there too.  If the project is small enough to fit the page protector pocket, that too will go into the Artist Ntbk when the study is over-otherwise, we proudly display it until we move to our next artist. 

So where do I find the pictures for the study? I mainly use the library because they usually have some big artist books to choose from. Helpful tip here: be sure to go thru it first and see how much nudity is in it. Some are more child friendly than others. I also go to sites like Amazon to find stickers, coloring books, and calendars highlighting the artist of study.  There are also some nice online sites too. Usually I go to Olga's gallery to print the wee little pics we place on our notebook pages, and Wikipedia for a pic of the artist.


In a perfect world, I would do two artists a semester.  But life happens.  So usually I do two per year. Which for us is actually perfect.  I try to choose folks that coincide with the era of history we are studying but that doesn't always work out.  Since I have that DVD set, we are simply going to study the artists she focuses on. I have done quite a few of these studies-so I can pull together a unit fairly quickly without much effort-even without having a base to start with, like the DVDs. There are plenty of dudes and dudettes out there to ponder so finding one or two to match what history we are covering isn't too difficult. Of course, as you go further back in time-it's a bit more challenging to find artists/material, but I know I do not have to have them correspond to do this. The kids (OK so I am down to one 'kid now) will eventually come to that time and place in their/his studies and it will just be one of those, "Oh yeah!  I remember him/her." moments of recollection. Studying even just a few here and there [some years we simply didn't do so swell covering artists] has proven to be beneficial.  I cannot even count the amount of times we will see a pic or ad that is from one the artists we explored, and my children will go, "Hey that's a ...." One of those 'ah yes' smiles will cross my face then. It's all good really, it truly is.


Anyhoo-for detailed posts on a particular artist, go to the artist tab at the top and click it.  I have a run down of the ones we have covered so far. It highlights what we used for the study, including supplies books and ideas.

Artist Study: Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh

image from Wikipedia

Books:

The coffee table book showcased a lot of different pictures
 you won't usually see in the children's editions.
BUT please preview-I saw a few nudes
in the ones I checked out from the library.

Book Ideas:

What Makes A Van Gogh A Van Go
Famous Artists: Van Gogh
Art Masters: Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh and the Colors of the Wind
Great Artists: Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh and the Post-Impressionists for Kids
The Great Artists and their World: Van Gogh

Art Sticker Book (this is great for many periods and artists)

Picture Study Resources:

 Calendar purchased at book store

Art Calendar

Taking the calendar apart provided 12 great pictures for him to choose from.  

He now has 6 large pictures to study, which I laid out on the desk in front of his.
That way he is always looking at them.  Each week he will study one, 

then give me a narration of what it is on Friday. 

Dover art cards

Notebooking Pages:

Homeschool Helper Notebooking Page

Olga's Gallery

 images for page or to study

Art Project Helps:

image from See the Light website 

I was fortunate enough to have won the Art Projects Boxed Set from See The Light.  This awesome set contains DVDs that focus on 9 artists/styles. Sadly, I haven't had the chance to dig into these until now.  I pulled out the Van Gogh to start. I figured since my eldest daughter had given me a Van Gogh calendar last year (and we no longer needed it) the time was right to begin. [My pic is to the right. Frankly, I didn't like the oil pastels much.  Not exactly pleased with the results].

The required supplies include oil pastels (24 count) but I only had a 12 pack laying about and I didn't have to correct sized paper either.  No problem.  I made a list of items to pick up, but in the meantime, I had my son practice using these .  That way, when he started working on the actual project, he would be a bit more experience with them.

I had him draw two plastic pears first then I busied myself making lunch. When he came into the kitchen he had another paper done of a seascape.  I was impressed. When I told him to put it on the fridge, he was saying, "Look mom!"  His grandma had recently given us a Noah's Ark magnet. He strategically placed it on the ocean part of his picture which looks like it was meant to be there all along.

Finished Art Project:

Sunflowers

Main recommended supplies for this art lesson.
I set up our own sunflowers in a vase to help my student
get an up close visual for the project.
Plus, I can use them to decorate my home later :)

My son's sunflowers drawing.
 Enthusiasm for the lesson (esp. the oil pastels)
was not there for him,  but he is not our artsy kid
so I wasn't too surprised.
Also-many of the colors/layering in this lesson are
hard to decipher due to his color blindness.
But the overall piece is quite lovely.

Additional Helps:

Pinterest has lots of ideas/links

History and Artist Study Resources: Lewis and Clark & George Catlin

As we are moving through the Beautiful Feet Books Westward Expansion guide, we have come to an exciting point-the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery expedition.  I have been waiting for this part for some time.  I want to really ingrain the significance and well-coolness of this part of our history, so I am slowing way down to bring in several more resources, a DVD, arts and crafts and a great Lewis and Clark game to bring it all together. I reserved what I could not find at our library (use that feature peeps-great way to save money on books you'll only use once or twice) and pulled what I had on our shelves. The required text, Of Courage Undaunted: Across the Continent with Lewis and Clark by James Daugherty is serving as the backbone of the study but is not pictured because I didn't have it from the library when I posted.

I own some of these (What's the Deal, the top two Lewis and Clark 

activity books and the coloring book in the center pile ) 

 the others are from the library

So while we wait to get that book, we will read thru many of the excellent books I did get.  I will use some of the art/crafts books to cherry pick a few activities to add a bit more excitement to this study as well.  We will also be notebooking pages as we move thru the lessons (working on those right now, but so far I do have the Louisiana Purchase map from Homeschool in the Woods Olde World Style World and US maps printed, which he colored in while listening to me read one of the books. He also has T. Jefferson, Lewis, Clark and Sacajawea pics to cut out and place on his pages to write down their data for his history notebook too.

Because we have already covered Audubon, we won't be studying him as denoted in the study. We will, however, be covering George Catlin who did paint various Native American tribes/chiefs and village life a few years after L and C had explored the vast territory.  I found some real gems in regard to the colored prints of his work. I will have the boy go thru and find about 6 different ones he wants to do for his picture study, then get them printed and mounted on card stock for ease of reference. As a part of the Charlotte Mason way of studying artists, we'll put together an artist info page on George too.

image from Amazon.com

Wow-the price of this has gone up-I did not pay that amt. 

Do some research and look for a better deal.

And because I find games to be a great way to bring interest into a study-we'll be playing the Lewis and Clark game I purchased at the beginning of the year.  Once we have wrapped up the study, I will post a new ditty on the links/resources we used.

2013-14 Artists/Musician Study choices

I have finally made my decisions on who we will cover for our artists and musicians for the coming year.
Because we're going to be studying American History thru the new Beautiful Feet Books Westward Expansion in combination with their California History, I wanted to zero in on artists who did a good job representing the natural world and the peoples from that time period.


Now we have covered John James Audubon (info on several artists noted on this page) a couple years ago-but we didn't do a total in depth study nor did we cover his animal paintings/drawings.  So we'll do some bird time (esp. since our science covers the flying creatures of the fifth day-and of course birds are a part of that), then move to the critters.  So I am currently researching the books I will need from the library and will get some color copies made of some of the animals-esp. ones that are found out west.

The BFB Westward Expansion does include one of the books with a little ditty on him so I wanted to be sure to revisit him.

I will also tie in George Catlin.  He did some absolutely beautiful paintings of several Native Americans/Tribes.  He also knew (I believe also painted one or the other of the Lewis and Clark dudes) so since we'll cover L and C as well-I wanted to be sure to cover him as well.  I am currently hunting down books to use (from the library) and will get some pics printed for the picture study too.  I am excited to cover him since I know very little about him.





I will also revisit Benjamin West since that is a part of the very early expansion.  We covered him slightly last year (I think it was last year lol) but wanted to expand that study a tad more too.  I found some neat books via the library on him-so we'll do that too!


All of the artists we cover this year will be small and short lived studies since they are pretty much review for us.  Once I get all the materials and activities figured out I will be sure to do a link up of those.


And then I will cover one musician.  I bought a book on Stephen Foster (by Opal Wheeler) and a TG, and the CD so we'll cover him. I will get some music of his via the library.
Visit Zeezok's site because it looks like they have dropped and added different products.  They used to have the book and guide and cd set.  I don't see it anymore tho.  [updated 1/19/16]