Claude Monet Artist Study

We're diving into Impressionism for the last weeks of the 2009-2010 school year with the "Father of Impressionism", Claude Monet. I'm curious to hear the boys' opinions on his work since they didn't care for the paintings of NC Wyeth's that were not within his usual 'realistic' way of painting. I have gained an appreciation and love for this style of painting and I am excited to learn more about some of the artists who use it.

We'll be using these Monet art cards to study and then the boys will add them to their art album.

We'll be reading lots of books:

Charlotte in Giverny by Joan MacPhail Knight

The Magical Garden of Claude Monet by Laurence Anholt

Katie Meets the Impressionists by James Mayhew

Claude Monet: Sunshine and Waterlilies by Steven Packard and True Kelly

What Makes a Monet a Monet by Richard Muhlberger

Getting To Know the World's Greatest Artist: Monet by Mike Venezia

I'll get some ideas for projects from here:

Monet and the Impressionists for Kids
Discovering Great Artists
(Love this book!)

Found this DVD at the library for us to watch:


I also ordered these J-I-N-G-O games from Rainbow Resource.

Lastly, if you are looking for some incredible notebooking pages to go along with your Impressionists study, look no further. Nadene from Practical Pages has created some. They are simply amazing! Oh, and check out this great narration idea her kids did for Seurat's "Bathers at Asnieres". We are so doing this!

If you missed the post about how we do art study, you can read about it here.

Picture Study Our Way

As a way to incorporate more of Charlotte Mason's ideas into our homeschool, I have introduced the boys to picture study. I was a little hesitant, at first, as I was unsure of their reaction. I didn't want to be faced with resistance. Let me go on record as saying, "This is one of their favorite times during our week!" We have lively discussions about how this week's piece is different or similar than last week's, what we appreciate about it and what we don't, and what the artist may have been feeling or experiencing during the time he/she painted it.

Let me break it down for you:

1. I choose an artist to study for 6-8 weeks.

We have been studying NC Wyeth these past few weeks. It was a totally strategic plan on my part to introduce picture study with an artist who clearly has great works for boys to study.

2. I choose 6-8 works the artist created for the boys to study.

Here are a few we have looked at:




3. The first day I introduce the artist, I read a short biography and the boys fill out a biography page. We are using the free ones offered at www.notebookingpages.com.

4. I hand the boys their own copy of the work.

I purchased these cards from Dover.

5. I give them a few minutes to look at it and then the discussion begins.

I found this list of questions to use as a guide. I say "a guide" because I don't want this time to be scripted. I want the discussion to flow...and boy, does it ever!

I don't tell the boys the name of the work because I like to see what title they would give it. They like this part of the discussion. I write their title on the back of the card and then we place them in their binders.

Oh...the binders...almost forgot. We are using 3 ring binders and placing the pictures in these photo sleeves. The little business card size pocket in the upper right is where we are going to write the titles of the works that are on that page. Our artist biography notebook page will be placed in front of his works.

If you haven't yet started doing picture study in your own homeschool, I encourage you to give it a try!

Picture Study Ah-Ha Moment

Don't you just love it when you have one of those moments? You know...when something just finally clicks. I had one of those today and it was glorious!

I have a strong desire for my boys to not only learn their 3 R's but to be educated in the fine arts as well. At this age, that comes in the form of picture study. Look at a work of art closely, ask them a few questions about it or have them describe it, and tell them a bit about the artist. Seems simple enough. Well, it wasn't that easy for me. I was having a difficult time figuring out who we were going to study and then which works. I was stuck.

So, one day I just decided that my desktop wallpaper was going to be a rotating display of art. I chose a painting by Renoir first. Without doing anything "formally", they asked a few questions about it and I asked them a few questions back. To be honest, it did not go the way I had hoped. They really were not interested. But, at least they are being exposed to it.

Well, then today we did another lesson from our unit study on Pirates. We are using this guide from Homeschoolshare.com. We looked at this picture by Howard Pyle...


I didn't have high hopes about our discussion, I just wanted them to look closely at it. Well, after a total meltdown from Magnus over me asking him, "What do you think is going though that man's mind as he is standing on the plank?", I thought all was lost. After we got to the heart of why Magnus was crying...maybe I'll post about that another time, but let me just say that it is hard raising a highly creative and imaginative kid and he is dealing with challenges of that as well (poor kid)...I couldn't get him or Thane to stop talking about it! They were making connections, getting emotional and telling stories just from this one picture! IT WAS AWESOME!!!!

So onto my ah-ha moment. This is something we *can* do. And to keep them interested in it I have decided that we are going to study artists and pictures that they would be interested in. Knights, Pirates, Cowboys and Indians, battles, ect. You know...boy stuff. We already have big coffee table books on Winslow Homer, N.C. Wyeth, and John William Waterhouse (a personal favorite). What boy wouldn't want to look more closely at this...

or this...

Needless to say, I am excited about this. We'll get to Monet, Renoir, and Michelangelo soon enough.