As a child, I loved looking at art and I still do. Art brings an awareness of visual beauty to life. Master artists paint with a particular emphasis in mind, and by viewing their works, we are able to see an aspect of nature that we may not have been aware of. Our eyes are opened to it. In our quote of the month, Charlotte Mason speaks of art as enriching our life experience in more ways that we can possibly measure.  She speaks to the child's experience in particular. My references to art were fairly limited when I was a child. Art was found in quality picture books and tiny reproductions of master artworks within our Encyclopedia set. Still, I was always drawn to visual images. There is a lot more available to us today. Many books have been published for children which include art reproductions. Of course one should visit museums when possible.

Art by master artists, in whatever form available, inspires, even through reproductions. Children gain familiarity with art in this way. My daughters, familiar with John Singleton Copley's painting, Watson and the Shark, through the ARTistic Pursuits lessons, saw it for the first time in the National Gallery in Washington D.C. when they were in 5th and 7th grade. There was an immediate connection to the painting and they were awed by the true colors, the size, and the details that were not so easily seen in the print. This rich experience was like meeting a cherished friend in person after only knowing him through letters. I knew then that viewing art through a print had built a platform that children could stand on with confidence. They could say, "I know that painting!" Again, when my daughter was faced with the opportunity to visit the art museum in London for only a few hours, she sought out paintings and artists that were familiar to her through prints and was greatly enriched by seeing the actual works.

Without prior influence of art prints, many children  simply identifying objects within a painting. Here is where a bit of art eduction can help them see more within paintings as they view them. When knowledge is expanded so that they can appreciate subtle color changes, the beauty of line variations within a drawing, or a well composed picture, then what they gather from a painting is far richer. They can then start to apply the vocabulary of art to see subtle qualities that, before, were simply overlooked.They can apply the things they see in art to their own works. This gives added purpose to museum visits.  N.G., a homeschool mom said, "I can see my children applying the things they've learned through it (the curriculum). We walked through the art museum last week and they were finding compositional things , like motion, within the pictures." The more we know, the more we are able to reap from man's experiences, and the better judge we are of what has value and what to dismiss.

Viewing art is an eye-opening experience into the world as the artist sees it. We can learn to see more, to see clearer, to see with the eyes of another and to identify the richer things of our world because of it.