One of the things I love about teaching my own children is the chance to learn things that I didn’t get to learn (or maybe just didn’t take in!) when I went to school. Picture Study is one of these areas. Charlotte Mason understood the difficulty one faces when attempting to teach our children about art. On Page 213 of her sixth volume, she said: “There are few subjects regarded with more respect and less confidence in our schools than this of 'Art.'” This is just how I felt when thinking about approaching art. I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t remember ever learning anything about any artist, other than I knew Picasso painted really weird paintings. Not much of a base to start teaching my own children about art or the great artists.
Miss Mason went on to say, “Of course, we say, children should have their artistic powers cultivated, especially those who have such powers, but how is the question.” Yes, a big one! Here is the answer she gives us – “It is of the spirit, and in ways of the spirit must we make our attempt.” Art is all about touching one’s heart AND mind. When we see a great work of art, our emotions are stirred. If we know a little about the artist and their life, we may be even more emotionally connected with the art produced out of such a life.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. I had never really paid any attention to art works before, because I was intimidated. I didn’t understand any theory or philosophy behind studying art. I felt stupid, so I avoided it. I never took advantage of any art museums I was ever nearby. I thought everyone would know by looking at me that I didn’t have any clue what I was looking at, and would think less of me. (Pride rears its ugly head, again. Sigh.) Then I read Karen Andreola’s book A Charlotte Mason Companion, and I saw how simply she introduced art to her children. She explained how Charlotte Mason had the same philosophy about art as she did about books. Children need to be exposed to the real thing, with nothing in between them and it. Charlotte Mason said, in that same sixth volume of her works, “…there must be knowledge and, in the first place, not the technical knowledge of how to produce, but some reverent knowledge of what has been produced; that is, children should learn pictures, line by line, group by group, by reading, not books, but pictures themselves.” WOW! I got very excited! I could learn right along with my children a deep appreciation of art. And I didn’t need to know the difference between a Van Gogh and a Monet to get started! Next time, I’ll share about our first faltering steps in the study of art, and how we go about getting to see some great works of art ourselves.
