Our Artist Study

Since I have been posting about our Artist Study, I thought I would tell you how we go about studying the artist. Starting this month, I chose the artist by following the recommendation from Ambleside Online. (our new curriculum). However, last month we studied Giotto. This was my choosing. AO recommends that you stay with an artist for the term. The terms are 12 weeks each. Because we will finish our term at the end of April, we will only study this artist for 4 weeks. AO gives you 6 paintings to study each term.
We work on our Artist Study during lunch. (Our Artist Study is scheduled for Fridays. However, the children will ask to do it more often.) I copy the paintings into jpeg format and have them printed at Walgreen's into 4x6 prints.

Day One Artist Study

I place the photo of the painting on the table. The children look at it during lunch. When we are finished eating, each child narrates to me what they see in the painting. I don't add much to the discussion on this day except for the name of the Artist.

Day Two

The children look at the same photo of the painting again during lunch. This time when they narrate they have to be more descriptive. I may ask them questions like, "What would you name this painting?", "How does this painting make you feel?", "What do you like or not like about the painting?", etc. Then we read about the life of the Artist.

If we have only studied on Fridays, I will introduce a new painting every other Monday. However if we have done the study more than twice in one week, I will introduce a new painting each Monday. Usually, every Monday we have a new painting to study and the children have studied the painting at least 4 days. All the photos are displayed on the side of the kitchen cabinet facing the table. This way the children can examine the photos of the paintings at their leisure.
After we have studied all the AO recommendations for the artist, I will choose more as time allows. Each time a new painting is introduced, we follow the Day One/Day Two schedule. If they study the painting more than two days, I just keep asking them more questions if their narrations are not detailed. We also go over the main facts about the artist.

On Week Six

The children write a notebook page about the artist. At the end of the term, they get to pick a photo to paste on their notebook page. The rest of the photos go in our Artist Scrapbook. This way I can store the photos for later use and the children can look at the book at anytime.

On Week Ten - Or when we complete at least 6 paintings

We will look on the computer at several paintings by the artist that I didn't get photocopied.

The Last Lesson Of Each Artist - Week 12

I ask the children to pick a painting they liked the best and draw their interpretation of the painting. They also have to choose a title for the painting and color it with colored pencils.


I hope this was clear. I am not blest with the talent of writing. If you have any questions, please post in the comment section and I will try to answer you.