Simple lessons on teaching the grammer of art.

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Welcome!

My name is Anna and I am a previous art teacher and current homeschooling mom.

I’ve created this blog to share art lessons that correlate to the Classical Conversations curriculum and to also give parents simple ways to teach art concepts beyond their CC community day experience. I hope it helps you!

I also publish a series of videos called Mealtime Monets that offer art lessons corresponding to Classical Conversations fine arts curriculum. -Anna

  • Cycle 3 Week 16- Norman Rockwell

    Cycle 3 Week 16- Norman Rockwell

    For me, Norman Rockwell’s illustrations do more than tell a story. They often convey something deep about life and human fragility. Yes, many of his drawings are humorous, but even then they contain so much more. They capture the emotions of the subject, the complexity of a seemingly everyday scene. We connect with the inner…

  • Cycle 3 Week 13- Grandma Moses

    Cycle 3 Week 13- Grandma Moses

    Starting out the “Great Artists” this year we have Grandma Moses. Her work is considered folk art, meaning her art pieces reflect her community, culture, and the everyday things around her. She was not a formally trained artist, and amazingly did not even begin painting until her late seventies. In her paintings we see the…

  • Cycle 3 Week 6- The White House (final drawing)

    Cycle 3 Week 6- The White House (final drawing)

    For the final drawing I usually don’t try and include all the concepts from the previous five weeks, but this year I gave it a go.  In order to pound those pegs in a little deeper, this project will touch on mirror-image drawing, perspective, shading, and, just by its nature of being a drawing, OiLs.…

  • Cycle 3 Week 5- Washington Monument Perspective Drawing

    Cycle 3 Week 5- Washington Monument Perspective Drawing

    This was my first week back to CC and, boy, am I feeling it.  Maybe also because my husband has been gone for a week, I’m planning my daughter’s fifth birthday party, and I have four loads of laundry staring at me.  Whatever the reason, I’m a little tired and I’m going to blame that…

  • Cycle 3 Week 4- Abstract American Flag

    Cycle 3 Week 4- Abstract American Flag

    Since we are studying American artists later this year during the “Great Artists”, I wanted to incorporate some famous American abstract artists into this lesson as well.  I’ve included examples of paintings by Calder, Rothko, and Johns. Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) created a painting called “Flag”, which, simply, is of the American flag.…

  • Cycle 3 Week 3- Statue of Liberty (upside down drawing)

    Cycle 3 Week 3- Statue of Liberty (upside down drawing)

    When I practiced this lesson with my own kids, it made me laugh because they begged for me to to turn the image right-side up for them to draw it.  Something about an upside-down drawing drives kids nuts.  Its hard to shut off the part of the brain that wants to see an image and…

  • Cycle 3 Week 2- Liberty Bell (Mirror Image)

    Cycle 3 Week 2- Liberty Bell (Mirror Image)

    My dad is a huge early American history enthusiast, so I am extra excited to study this year’s curriculum.  The next five lessons include symbols and landmarks of the United States, and we’ll start off with the Liberty Bell.  Originally named the State House bell, this iconic piece hung in the Pennsylvania State House, which…

  • Cycle 3 Introduction

    Cycle 3 Introduction

    Welcome back!  I hope you are excited and encouraged to start the new school year! As we go through the next six weeks, I will be using the phrase “let’s study what we see”.  As tutors, we want this to become part of our art vocabulary, and, most importantly, we want to equip our student’s…

  • Cycle 2 Week 15- Degas’ Dancers

    Cycle 2 Week 15- Degas’ Dancers

    As a girl I loved looking at Degas’ work.  I was enamored by the beautiful ballerinas in voluminous tutus practicing their movements .  It seemed effortlessly feminine.  Though most of his work focuses on the female form, he also did paintings of men and children in everyday life.  The overarching theme in his work is the human figure,…

  • Cycle 2 Week 16- Monet

    Cycle 2 Week 16- Monet

    This week we continue to study Impressionism.  When we think of Impressionism we think of Claude Monet.  And when we think of Claude Monet we think of water lilies, landscapes, and dabbled paint.  This is exactly what we want our students to think of as well.  Hopefully by the time this project is done, they…