We do a weekly study of an artist I've chosen ala Charlotte Mason style. You can read more about art study at this Ambleside Online webpage.  I found the conference recording on PRINT STUDY to be a wonderful "fire starter" for me. I listen to it (and others) from time to time, just to stay encouraged and focused. ( I have a bunch of these conference sessions loaded to my PDA! It's like a homeschool conference at my fingertips!)

I print out the pieces for each artist we study  to full size 8.5x11" glossy photo paper on my home inkjet printer. They turn out pretty nicely actually. I also gather up a little bit of info for each print if i can find it (medium used, year created, size, maybe any notes specific to that piece, etc.) and copy/paste to a Word document for me to look at for each new print.

Then when it is time for our study, DD brings the artist study folder to me and we begin. If there is a print studied from the previous week, she also brings that with her. (Each week's study hangs on the mini-blinds in the school room. Easy to view each day. I just keep it in a clear page protector and paper clips gently hold it onto the blind. Yes, the mini-blinds still work with it hanging!)

If a new artist is being studied, I'll read from a biography or if I've gotten some books from the library about that artist I'll have her read independently and narrate back to me. Depending on the length of the bio, this might be done a bit each week for the course of the study if needed. A notebook page on the artist is also started during the first week of study and continued till the end of that artist's study.

Each week, I also ask her to recall what she can remember about the previous week's print by that artist. Then I have her silently study a new print.

After her 60 second study and "narration" about the week's print, we look again at the print and she elaborates on the print even further. I jump in with little things from time to time as well. We discuss a variety of elements for the print from questions I have in our artist study notebook, things that just pop into my head, things she comes up with, as well as a little book i got from one of my art classes at college. You can purchase the little booklet called THE GENERIC GAME  here.  (  It is a set of questions that can be used with any piece (or set) of artwork to glean insight from the piece through focused observations and shared reactions to the piece(s). It can be done by individuals or a group, at your home or in a gallery or museum. It is intended to be used over and over again! A nominal fee for the years of use you can get from it.)

To wrap up the artist's study, I have her lay out all the prints on the floor that we've studied the past few weeks. The we go through discussion of various topics of comparisons, contrasts, likes, dislikes, favorite, etc. etc. I am always amazed at that which comes from her mind. She not only has a great attention for details between the prints but also a nice mind for the "big picture" of the body of work we're studying. We have GREAT discussions on this wrap-up day.   Any unfinished parts of the notebook page is completed. Then when all is done, the prints are gathered up, officially added to the artist study notebook behind her artist notebook page and we're done! She likes having her own "portable gallery" of artists that we've studied she can look through at any time. In the future, I plan to also have her "try her hand" at duplicating a chosen print or a style of the studied artist, but for now, this is all we do.

Doing artist study this way has been such a blessing, such a nice, fruitful addition to our homeschooling. Even though it is only once a week it is such a rich time in our week.