Getting arty

I have to confess, that my approach to art has been rather, well, laid back?

My children LOVE to draw.  They are constantly - yes, CONSTANTLY - drawing pictures, and giving them to me.  They seem to be naturally developing skills by doing it on their own.

As much as that is all well and good, I feel it is a good thing to add some structure.  It's my theme of this term.

Structure.

So long as I add the element of consistency, it will be hunky-dory.

Moving on.

I thought I would share some of the resources that we are planning to use.

I wasn't quite sure where to start, but I knew that I wanted the children to learn.  I wanted them to learn about artists, art types, history of art and how to try it out for themselves.

So, what does every efficient home-schooling mother do?

She googles.

Yup, googles.

(It appears "googles" is not a verb acknowledged by my spell check.  It exists.  How do I know?  I DO it, so it must exist)

So, I went onto Amazon and searched for art books.  My eye was drawn (HA! "drawn"....) to this book.

I am a BIG fan of Usborne.  They tend to be very well produced, colourful and informative.  

It also had good reviews.  Amazon is great from that point of view, as you can see what other people think of the book. 

It gives you a history of 34 artists, from Giotto to Warhol.  For each artist you have a timeline of their life, interesting facts, and examples of their art.  Perfect for children to get the basics required to learn about these artists.  I will be using this book as a reference book, to help the children learn about the artists.

Next, I wanted a more general book about art.  I turned to Dorling Kindersley, which are anotehr reliable publisher.

This one is "Children's Book of Art"

It covers 3 main areas - early art, modern art and sculpture.  Within each section it has "how to do" sections, pages about artists, genres of art such as "children in art" and timelines of art styles and artists.  It is chock full of interesting facts and details about art.  It has "galleries" on the way through, to showcase different subjects.    This, again, will be used for reference, but also for details about how to replicate the types of art shown in the book.



My next choice was another DK one.

My Art Book.

This one is a project book, telling you about different art forms, and then showing you how to do your own projects using the same forms.  Each project has 2 pages about the form you will replicate, and 4 pages on how to do it yourself.  They give you a list of items you will need for each project, and alternative things to try if you don't have the materials suggested for the project.  There are 12 bigger projects, and 3 smaller ones.  If the suggestions don't suit your needs, there is enough of an idea to apply it to your own family.



To tie literature in with the art, I have a lovely set of books that I plan to use as a read-aloud.  They are the Katie and the Artists Collection.  I have the set with 10 books in  it.  They will be the perfect accompaniment to involve the younger ones, as we learn about the artists and their styles of painting.

I plan to have the children fill in print-outs about each artist we study, and have them try and replicate many of the styles used.  I will alternate, each week, between learning about the artist and his style, and putting it into practise!

So, there are my art plans for the next little while.  I don't know how long it will take to get through them all, but we will keep plodding away, and above all else, HAVE FUN!!

What are your ideas for studying art?  Have you got any resources or ideas to share?  Please comment below, and leave us a link to your blog if you have posted about it.

** I MUST POINT OUT THAT THESE BOOKS HAVE SOME REFERENCE TO NUDITY.  IT'S NEARLY UNAVOIDABLE IN ART.  I PLAN TO EXPLAIN TO THE CHILDREN THAT WE DO NOT CONDONE NUDITY, AND EXPLAIN TO THEM WHY.  I WILL USE IT TO TEACH THEM ABOUT IT, RATHER THAN TRYING TO PRETEND IT DOESN'T EXIST**