"Artist of the Week" and "Composer of the Week"

"Artist of the Week" and "Composer of the Week" process--- a friend of mine asked about the details of our artist study, so after I typed it out I thought I might as well post it on here too---maybe someone else could benefit?!  We love it. 

Each week (usually) we have 1 "Artist of the Week" and 1 "Composer of the Week".  Here are my really un-fancy; uncomplicated guidelines.  I'm sure anyway you do it, it can be beneficial to your lessons---as long as you do it!

Van Gogh (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists) by Mike Venezia

I really don't do any big deal--- I own a lot of those "Getting to Know the Greatest Artist..." by Mike Venezia and I read half of the book on Monday --generally pages 1-18 and then we look at other books I own of that artist work Tues or Wed (if I have more art books on that artist) or I just show the paintings or artwork a few times during the week--and then I finish up the second half of the book either Thursday or Friday--generally pages 18--32. I try to spread out the artist and the art work throughout the week to get that info into the "long term memory" folders in the brain----silly memory tricks, I know!

Any of these basic biographies give a good general description of the artists life and some of the artists most famous works.  It is great to have another book with more illustrations of their artwork; but that doesn't always happen.

I've been trying to get my daughter to tell me back or write down the main things from the artist.  Like when she was talking about Georgia O'Keefe I made sure she got WHY she painted flowers so big; and WHY that was important...What was Georgia KNOWN for ....

What is Degas KNOWN for....
What is Van Gogh KNOWN for....

I leave out a few books with that artist work around for her to look at during the week---and encourage her to look at these books and she what she likes about this particular artist...or what she doesn't like, if that is the case.  I tell her what I like--specifically too.

just to get the main idea and concepts understood.... but, I don't do any real homework or prep work on my end.  If you don't own art books you could just pick an artist for the week and look them up on the internet and look at the images there--and lots of info is available.  I just like books in my hand.  Or you could check them out from your library. 


The composers---we do the "Meet the Greatest Composers" series:

Meet the Great Composers Book 1 (Learning Link) by June Montgomery and Maurice Hison

We finished book 1, and are about to start book 2:

Meet the Great Composers: Book 2 (Learning Link) by Maurice Hinson

The Composer books are exactly the same--they have all the text right there for you to read; and they have the disc for you to listen to their music, and tell you which tract to play.  I also have a LOT of books on composers and my daughter knows if she wants to find out MORE, all she has to do is go to that section in our family library and read up on that composer.  We (especially, me) love to listen to classical music!!!  It is so interesting to find out the life story behind each musician and listen to their music.


Adding the "Artist of the Week" and "Composer of the Week" to our lessons has definitely taken just about an hour of time to our week---but has made my daughter SOOOO HAPPY!!!  She really, really LOVES that we do this!!!  It is like we are playing a board game in the middle of our lessons!  She really thinks this is "not lessons"; but pure joy and fun!  It really is seen by her as a treat; and helps her attitude greatly!