My dear Miss Carol, from Home Sweet Life, has come to my rescue...isn't it great? She sent me an art book post on the very day I've come down with Pneumonia. Isn't that all God at work? Anyways, you will need to read this post she has guest posted for me. All the about the World's Greatest Artists, in particular Monet.
My love of art began at an early age. My father was an artist who chose to work as an illustrator for technical books to make sure his family was provided for. I've never particularly liked the term starving artist, and apparently, neither did my Dad. On the weekends my parents would often take us to the Art Museum, or some equally interesting and inexpensive place. Or my Dad would work with my brother and me on improving our art skills. Having grown up with art being a necessary and vital part of everyday life, I knew I wanted to pass the love of quality art on to our daughters. However, there was one drawback. As I had grown up I had learned more about the personal lives, and sometimes failings, of the several of the World's great artists. I knew I needed a tempered approach to introduce our young girls to art, while still shielding them from some of the personal choices the artists had made.
When Annette mentioned that she was looking for guest posts for her Art Book Series, I knew it was time to head back to the children's section at our local library and share with you about some gems I had found there when they were still little. Today our girls are 16 & 18.
My favorite series of books to use for artist study with the girls when they were little were Mike Venezia's Getting to Know the World's Great Artists books. While I knew some families would purchase a year-long calendar and study the 12 paintings with their children, I needed a method to study more than the 12-14 artists we would cover in the amount of time before the girls graduated.
When our girls were still pretty little, and my Dad was still alive, he and my Mom gave the girls the book Philippe in Monet's Garden by Lisa Carmack. In the story, Philippe is a Parisian frog who is being hunted by local chefs who want to serve his frog legs for dinner. In the story Philippe finds safety in Monet's garden and the reader is introduced to Monet's impressionistic style. After reading the book to the girls several times, I went to the children's section at the library to find more about Monet. For my little girls who were about 4 and 6 at the time, Venezia's book from the Juvenile Biography section was just about right. It is a 22 page picture book, that gives an overview of several of Monet's paintings, interspersed with Venezia's cartoons that help explain Monet's life.
Venezia has a large list of 40 artists in this series. Ones like: Warhol, Velazquez, Kahlo, Goya, Hopper, Wood, Pollock, Renoir, Vermeer, Rockwell, Cassatt, and Rembrandt which are all written for your 5-10 year old to enjoy. Venezia also had biographies about American Presidents ... but that is for another post!
Because I know the availability of books can change over the years, I looked around to see what other good books I could find at our library that you might want to consider that were about Monet. I found Monet's Impressions, copyright 2009 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The Impressionists by David Spence. Monet's Impressions is a picture book found in the non-fiction section (759.4 Monet) that pairs Monet's paintings with phrases taken from his personal letters. The phrases are short and the artwork is - well -stunning! It is Monet after all! Spencer's book (759.05 Spence) covers Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Cézanne. The section on Monet is about 25 pages and covers his works, methods, family and friends. This book, which would probably best fit ages 10 and up also has a two-page spread about the paints available to Monet during his lifetime and background on how they were made.
If your local library does not have copies of Mike Venezia's greta books, many of them can be found used on amazon.
I hope you'll have a wonderful time exploring the works of great artists with your children!
Carol is a wife of more than 20 years, Mama to two teenaged daughters, and avid gardener. She blogs at Home Sweet Life where her family shares its unique experience-based educational life, Road Trip ideas, book reviews, and encouragement for healthy families. Carol spends time volunteering as a local 4-H Leader, and at Conner Prairie in Fishers, IN. You can often find Carol outdoors with her family, and her camera. One of their favorite family pastimes includes long hikes in the woods where she photographs the wildlife they see.
When Annette mentioned that she was looking for guest posts for her Art Book Series, I knew it was time to head back to the children's section at our local library and share with you about some gems I had found there when they were still little. Today our girls are 16 & 18.
My favorite series of books to use for artist study with the girls when they were little were Mike Venezia's Getting to Know the World's Great Artists books. While I knew some families would purchase a year-long calendar and study the 12 paintings with their children, I needed a method to study more than the 12-14 artists we would cover in the amount of time before the girls graduated.
When our girls were still pretty little, and my Dad was still alive, he and my Mom gave the girls the book Philippe in Monet's Garden by Lisa Carmack. In the story, Philippe is a Parisian frog who is being hunted by local chefs who want to serve his frog legs for dinner. In the story Philippe finds safety in Monet's garden and the reader is introduced to Monet's impressionistic style. After reading the book to the girls several times, I went to the children's section at the library to find more about Monet. For my little girls who were about 4 and 6 at the time, Venezia's book from the Juvenile Biography section was just about right. It is a 22 page picture book, that gives an overview of several of Monet's paintings, interspersed with Venezia's cartoons that help explain Monet's life.
Venezia has a large list of 40 artists in this series. Ones like: Warhol, Velazquez, Kahlo, Goya, Hopper, Wood, Pollock, Renoir, Vermeer, Rockwell, Cassatt, and Rembrandt which are all written for your 5-10 year old to enjoy. Venezia also had biographies about American Presidents ... but that is for another post!
Because I know the availability of books can change over the years, I looked around to see what other good books I could find at our library that you might want to consider that were about Monet. I found Monet's Impressions, copyright 2009 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The Impressionists by David Spence. Monet's Impressions is a picture book found in the non-fiction section (759.4 Monet) that pairs Monet's paintings with phrases taken from his personal letters. The phrases are short and the artwork is - well -stunning! It is Monet after all! Spencer's book (759.05 Spence) covers Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Cézanne. The section on Monet is about 25 pages and covers his works, methods, family and friends. This book, which would probably best fit ages 10 and up also has a two-page spread about the paints available to Monet during his lifetime and background on how they were made.
If your local library does not have copies of Mike Venezia's greta books, many of them can be found used on amazon.
I hope you'll have a wonderful time exploring the works of great artists with your children!
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