Art

Fenestrae Fidei

Author(s): 
Sean Fitzpatrick
I am so excited to post a review on this new coloring book! My girls and I spent a great part of the last weekend working on these beautiful pictures to color! Sean Fitzpatrick, the artist, knows very well what gets young artists to want to grab those colored pencils... The illustrations are fairly simple for young hands and yet a more experienced artist can have a lot of fun with it. Hillside Education's site offers the suggestion of brushing th finished pictures with vegetable oil for a stained glass effect, and we did that!

A Catholic How-to-Draw

Author(s): 
Andrea Helen Smith

This lovely and engaging book presents 30 drawing projects (of mostly religious subjects) in an easy-to-follow step-by-step fashion so that even very young children can gain confidence in their drawing skills and enjoy making beautiful decorations for holy day decorations, greeting cards and more.

The projects included are as follows:

Art 4 for Young Catholics

Book cover: 'Art 4 for Young Catholics'
Author(s): 
Reed & Roxolana Armstrong
Mary Rakow

What could be better than a well-planned and well-organized Catholic art textbook written by internationally-known Catholic artists who are also art historians and professors? This is the textbook! From the introduction by the authors: "The rules used here have been the time-tested tools used by artists for centuries and are based on natural law and common sense. Once acquired, these skills are not only transferable to other disciplines but also foster genuine appreciation and discernment in the field of art and of beauty in creation."

Art Through Faith

Book cover: 'Art Through Faith'
Author(s): 
Mary Lynch
the Seton Staff

This Catholic Art text, intended for the eighth grade, offers thirty-six weeks of lessons in art appreciation, with an emphasis on religious art. The text presents 152 images (in full-color on glossy paper) which cover many of the basic schools and famous artists (in chronological order).

Meet the Masters

Years ago, a friend who teaches university-level art classes, told me that the best way for me to teach my children art was to combine how-to instruction with art appreciation. She suggested learning about the life of a particular artist by reading biographies and then learn how to imitate his or her technique. This made perfect sense to me, but I did not feel knowledgeable enough in the subject matter to put together my own curriculum and I did not know of any such art program that could be used in the home.