Picture Study is one of the earmarks of a Charlotte Mason education. When I first began to learn about CM, the thought of staring at a picture sounded boring to me. What do you learn from just staring? I couldn't see the benefit from picture study.
After two weeks of doing picture study, I can announce to the world that it has fast become my favourite part of our week. I look forward to Tuesdays (picture study day) much in the same way as Mia looks forward to Fridays (nature study day.) I have to admit, in the beginning, the idea of picture study struck fear in my heart. I had no idea how to pull it off. Do you really just stare at a picture?
My questions were answered on the Ambleside Online Yahoo group. Someone asked the very question that I was too chicken to ask on my own. How do you do picture study? From the answers and from other things I have read, I have come up with a 'system' on how to do picture study.
We are doing each artist for 12 weeks a la AO style. So for each artist we will be studying each painting for 2 weeks. The first week we will study the painting and then I will ask each child what they think about the painting--their feelings about it or a picture narration about what is happening. The second week we will concentrate on one element of art. Last week, when we were looking at The Lady of Shalott, we concentrated on foreground and background. Next week when we do this again with the next picture we will learn about the focal point. I am using Visual Manna's pre--school and elementary art books to help me with these discussions.
When possible, I would also like to read a biography about the artist. I don't think this is CM, but I want my children to be familiar with the artist as well as his or her own work. For this term's artist, John Waterhouse, I could not find any juvenile biography in our library system, so I just had to piece together what I could find on the internet.
I am finding that when we do picture study in this fashion, it is so easy to foster a relationship with the artist as well as his paintings. This is the goal of CM, to have a relationship with all aspects of beauty.
It is also easy to do picture study with the help of AO. The AO advisory has graciously given of their time to find pictures and their links for each artist. All I have to do is click on the picture and voila! I have my picture for the week. It saves me so much time. If you have never visited AO, I encourage you to do so. Make sure you do not have anything pressing to do and make a cup of tea, because you will be there a long time. There are so many wonderful things to see and read. I will give you the link for AO, just click on the top of the page on Art Study and that will lead you to the links for the various artists' works. Also, the 4 real learning message board also has artist and composer of the month in their artist forum. They usually have the paintings right in the post.
Picture study is such a delight for me and my children. I love hearing their picture narrations. It is such a joy to witness the excitement about what they have discovered in the painting. I can see the relationship growing.
Guess what? Tomorrow is Tuesday. You know what that means. Oh happy day!