Welcome to Our Homeschool Art Appreciation Curriculum: Everyday Easels

Course Sample for Our Everyday Easels Homeschool Art Appreciation Course

You can view After the Prom here as well as further information on Norman Rockwell.

Art

Norman Perceval Rockwell was born in New York City on February 3, 1894. He knew he always wanted to be an artist and began learning the technical skills to become an illustrator when he was just 14 years old. As a teenager, he was hired as an illustrator for Boys’ Life. He worked for several publications, including Life, and painted his first The Saturday Evening Post cover when he was 22 years of age. He then spent the next 47 years producing covers for this magazine. In 1963, Rockwell began working for Look and produced illustrations that dealt with civil rights, poverty, and space exploration.

Rockwell painted 321 covers for The Saturday Evening Post. Most of his illustrations depicted an ideal American life, but he also tackled political issues and significant moments in history like Charles Lindbergh’s crossing of the Atlantic in 1927. He portrayed Santa Claus many times, as well as hobos, boys playing, physicians, children, painters, historical figures, musicians, young people in love, and many other scenes. A gallery of his illustrations spanning the decades can be found on The Saturday Evening Post website.

Rockwell is one of the world’s most famous illustrators. An illustrator draws or paints pictures for use in magazines and books. Sometimes these illustrations are used in advertising. He is no less an artist than, say, Van Gogh or Monet. The difference is that most of his work is used in widely circulated publications instead of hanging on a museum wall. This particular piece, After the Prom, was on the cover of the May 25, 1957, Post.

Can you find illustrations in any publications (magazines, books, newspapers) you may have around your house? Try to find drawings or paintings instead of photography or computer graphics. What are the subjects of each of these illustrations? If you are permitted, cut these illustrations out and create a collage. Cut around the subject matter and then glue each to a piece of construction paper and give the entire collage a title.

Another project is to think like Norman Rockwell. Imagine something in life that is ideal. Perhaps, it is a family tradition or vacation. Perhaps, it is riding your bike outside or swimming in a lake. It can be humorous or serious. Try drawing this with colored pencil.

To view a full sample of this class, click here.

Course Outline for Our Everyday Easels Homeschool Art Appreciation Course

The Everyday Easels homeschool art appreciation course is a collection of more than 75 homeschool art studies, with 5-day and 10-day lesson options available.

More About Our Everyday Easels Homeschool Art Appreciation Course

The Everyday Easels homeschool art appreciation course is a collection of more than 75 homeschool art studies. There are two different formats of art unit studies: 5-day unit studies and 10-day unit studies. Below are descriptions of what is included in each type. Enjoy!

5-Day Everyday Easels Homeschool Art Appreciation Unit Studies

This feature leads a homeschool family in studying a different work of art each week. Day One introduces the work of art, provides a link to view it online, and begins the study. Days Two through Four provide different questions and activities approaching the featured work of art from many different angles—including history, vocabulary, geography, writing, and science. Each week concludes with hands-on activities broken into grade levels, providing homeschool students of all ages a fun way to experiment with what they have learned.

10-Day Everyday Easels Homeschool Art Appreciation Unit Studies

Every two weeks, the family begins a study of a new work of art. Day One contains a thorough look at the piece of art and the artist. Subsequent days explore Bible, history/geography, English, math, science, physical education/health, and home economics through a study of the painting. The art unit concludes with a notebooking page and a final day of hands-on activities for each family to try.

Day One’s content may be used for one day or broken up into sections to explore some art with each day’s material. Each family may choose the method that works best for them.