Art and Picture Study Details

For artist study we are studying only 3 artist per year in-depth. This year those artists are Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. We study six works of art by each artist, which is one work every two weeks.

On the first day of a new artist we read a book about him. So far our favorite books have been the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series by Mike Venezia.

Then we fill out an artist biography notebooking page about the artist. (I've made up my own for other artists based on this basic template.)

Lastly, we begin looking at our first selection of the artist's work. We spend only a couple of minutes looking at it. Then I ask a few questions from this list.

This is the only day that art takes very long, and it only happens three times per school year! That's manageable for me!

The second week that we study a work of art we try to reproduce it, or do a coloring page on the piece if I have one. If we're running short on time we simply study the work for a few more minutes and I ask a few different questions to get them thinking about the art.


For once weekly art projects we're using Discovering Great Artists by MaryAnn Kohl. I love this book! If you haven't seen it I highly recommend that you use Amazon's Look Inside! feature. (Be sure to read author MaryAnn Kohl's comment below this post, in the comments section!)  We read the brief biography of the artist and fill out the name, dates lived, and location born on a biography notebooking page for them, then we get to the project.

I love that the artists are in chronological order, it just seems to fit with the classical model. The boys' art notebooks are like little art timelines.

I take a picture of each project and print it on cardstock (I don't worry about being fancy and printing on photo paper.) Then we tape it to the notebooking page.  Done with art!

Artist/Picture Study

I've bounced around a few different ideas for artist/picture study.  I'm fairly certain that we will be using Classical Writing Primer as our grammar/copywork program and that also includes picture study.  So we'll do those activities, in addition to my plan, whenever the kids show an interest.  That should expose them to quite a variety of art over the years.  The current plan (subject, and likely, to change) is as follows. 

3 artists per year

6 works of art per artist

36 artists over the course of a 12-year study

Grade 1 Artists

Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337) Italian (first contributor of the Italian Renaissance)

Jan van Eyck (or Johannes de Eyck) (c.1390-1441) Flemish (Early Netherlands Renaissance)

Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) Italian (Florentine, Early Renaissance)

Grade 2 Artists

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Italian (Florentine, High Renaissance)

Michelangelo (1475-1564) Italian (Florentine, High Renaissance)

Raphael (1483-1520) Italian (Florentine, High Renaissance)

Grade 3 Artists

Titian (1488-1576) Italian (High Renaissance)

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569) Dutch (Flemish, Netherlands Renaissance)

El Greco (1541-1614) Greek (Spanish, High Renaissance)

Grade 4 Artists

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) Flemish (Baroque)

Diego Velásquez (1599-1660) Spanish

Rembrandt (1606-1669) Dutch (Baroque)

Grade 5 Artists

Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) Dutch (Baroque)

Francisco Goya (1746-1828) Spanish (father of modern art)

David (1748-1825) French (Neo-Classical)

Grade 6 Artists

John James Audubon (1785-1851) French-American (Naturalist)

Edouard Manet (1832-1883) French (Impressionist)

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) French (Post-Impressionist)

Grade 7 Artists

Claude Monet (1840-1926) French (Impressionist)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) French (Impressionist)

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) American (Impressionist)

Grade 8 Artists

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) French (Post-Impressionist)

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Dutch (Post-Impressionist)

Georges Seurat (1859-1891) French (Post-Impressionist)

Grade 9 Artists

Grandma Moses (1860-1961) American (Folk Art)

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) French (Fauvism)

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish (Cubism)

Grade 10 Artists

M.C. Escher (1898-1972) Netherlander (Graphic Artist)

Salvador Dali (1904-1989) Spanish (Surrealist)

William de Kooning (1904-1997) Hollander (Abstract Expressionist)

Grade 11 Artists

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) Mexican

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) American (Abstract Expressionist)

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) American (Realist)

Grade 12 Artists

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) American (Pop Art)

student’s choice

student’s choice

Visual Arts Museum Resources

The Metropolitan Museum of Art   Museum Kids

National Gallery of Art   NGA Kids

Museum of Modern Art   Modern Teachers

Guggenheim   Arts Curriculum

Musée d'Orsay  

Louvre  

Picture Study

Looking At A Work Of Art, is a wonderful list of questions to ask when discussing a work of art during picture study.

Mozart & Mudpies blog has a wonderful post about how she does Picture Study with her daughter.  I think I'm going to implement her "Let's play a game." idea because I have a child who loves games.

Mater Amabilis Picture Study

Ambleside Online Picture Study

Looking at Paintings: Developing a Story From a Painting

"Discovering Great Artists"

Have you seen this book yet?  No?!  Go find a copy!  Having finished up the Art Book that we've been working on since the beginning of the year, we're now moving on to lessons from Discovering Great Artists by MaryAnn Kohl and Kim Solga.  When we first bought the book we pulled it out and did one of the activities, Botticelli "Art in the Round".  Then I decided that we should probably cover some basics like primary and secondary colors, warm and cool colors, texture, etc, before we moved on to creating actual works of art.  I'm so glad we did, but we are ready to get back to Discovering Great Artists!

We concentrate on visual arts on Fridays, and this week we will be completing the Giotto "Egg Paint" activity.  I'll be back with photos once I have them!

Learning About Art and Ninja Turtles

It sounds like a funny combo until you think about it! After all, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are named after four famous artists: Raphael Sanzio da Urbino, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi or Donatello.

My 6-year-old loves all things super-heroish, and TMNT qualifies. My husband planted the idea to study these 4 artists after I mentioned the book we read a few minutes ago titled "Portraits: A First Discovery Art Book" and the picture of the TMNT Leonardo that my son was drawing while I talked to Dad on the phone.

I had to get the idea down, but I don't have a plan formed yet. As always, I'll continue to update with links as I find interesting resources.

Rafael
Rafael
Web Gallery of Art
ABCGallery

Michelangelo
ArtsEdge: Let's Talk About Painting
Michelangelo
Web Gallery of Art
ABCGallery
Michelangelo.com
Stanford - The Digital Michelangelo Project

Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Institute and Museum of the History of Science
Web Gallery of Art
ABCGallery
Museo Scienza
Museum of Science
Vinci: Leonardo's Home Town

Donatello
Donatello
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Web Gallery of Art