The world treasures Sir Winston Churchill as a soldier, statesman, orator, author and Prime Minister to the King of England and his daughter who now sits on the throne as the longest serving monarch the world has ever known. But do you know about the famous artist Winston Churchill?
“Just to paint is great fun. The colors are lovely to look at and delicious to squeeze out. Matching them, however crudely, with what you see is fascinating and absolutely absorbing.”
– Winston Churchill
Learn About Artist And Prime Minister Winston Churchill
This YouTube video version of Nana’s Podcast is a great introduction to Winston Churchill.
In his later years in retirement, he described his paintings as “duels” with intimidating canvases as a battle of wills, which could finally be won with a display of forceful, brilliant colors…and said, with a sigh, “I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am genuinely sorry for the poor brown colors.”
Step Into History With The Art Of Winston Churchill
Step into history with us as we see how a great British statesman found a source of delight and a relief from the stress of his career. He proudly painted in oils and pastel chalks, producing over 550 paintings, helping him to hone his powers of observation, memory and visual acuity.
Additional Resources For Studying Famous Artist Winston Churchill
Enjoy painting Sir Winston Churchill after listening to Nana’s podcast!
Don’t miss this fabulous Great Britain Themed Art which includes Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II, Big Ben, a map of the British Isles, WWII helmet and more!
Nana is passionate about helping you realize you ARE an artist! Not only an artist with chalk pastels but with homeschooling, creative spaces, favorite family recipes and more. Nana also enjoys chatting – especially about art. If you have followed along with any of her You ARE an Artist video art lessons, you know that. She also enjoys sharing photos and thoughts on topics while she is being creative in her studio space on her back porch. That is where she will be chatting with you – from her back porch. It’s Nana’s You ARE an Artist Podcast!
-Special thanks to Erin Vincent and her artists for the beautiful photos.Be sure to visit her at Nourishing My Scholar.
When you study famous artists in your homeschool, you might want to add a Tasha Tudor homeschool art lesson. Like myself, you may have seen her work so many times and not known it was the artwork of famous children’s book illustrator Tasha Tudor. Some of our most beloved children’s books are illustrated with her beautiful and intricate artistic styles.
Tasha Tudor is known for illustrating children’s books like The Wind in the Willows, A Child’s Garden of Verses, Little Women, The Secret Garden, Mother Goose, and more. Also noteworthy, Tudor wrote over a dozen children’s books of her own, like Pumpkin Moonshine and A Time to Keep.
If you haven’t heard of A Time to Keep, The Tasha Tudor Book of Holidays, it is a precious book that would be a fantastic addition to any homeschool library. It is a sweet and beautifully illustrated book that details one family’s traditions for a calendar year. The traditions are rooted in goodness and include everything from homemaking, children’s activities, and wholesome family fun.
We paired Nana’s new Tasha Tudor homeschool art lesson with a simple tea time to celebrate this lovely book.
Tasha Tudor Homeschool Art Lesson and Famous Artist Study
We were thrilled when we heard Nana would be adding a Tasha Tudor art lesson to the YOU ARE AN ARTiST Complete Clubhouse. With access to over 800 homeschool art lessons and adding more each week, our membership has become extremely valuable to our homeschool.
My oldest is earning her visual art credit with YOU ARE AN ARTiST and a Tasha Tudor art & tea time sure is an exciting way to add to her hours.
We spent a lot of time talking about Tasha Tudor’s artwork from the few books we have on hand. Then we began looking up more of her artwork online. Viewing and analyzing art is half the fun! Tudor was such a talented artist, but one thing that stands out is her signature border illustrations.
It is exciting to discuss how intricate each border is and noticed the details in each one. Her borders stand out and sometimes seem more significant than the illustrations inside of them. These are the homeschool discussions that I cherish.
Nana’s lesson was a perfect fit since Nana focuses on the border and allows the student to use their imagination to create a drawing or illustration inside. We left our borders open despite the appealing offer, we thought they were so pretty on their own.
Resources to Complement Your Tasha Tudor Homeschool Art Lesson & Tea Time
A Time to Keepby Tasha Tudor
You can reserve this one from the library, but I highly recommend adding it to your home library if you can. It’s a wonderful book to gift your children too!
You can reserve or purchase more books from Tasha Tudor; just be careful to grab the correct copies. For example, if you are searching for A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, you will need to be sure it’s the copy illustrated by Tasha Tudor.
From Nana’s Back PorchFamous ArtistsPodcast
We have recently been adding Nana’s podcast episodes to our homeschool art sessions. I think Nana’s podcast fits perfectly into tea times and homeschool art lessons. It is also nice to sit and listen with the kids occasionally. I always read aloud to my kids. But, I get a little break with Nana’s podcast, and everyone is still learning. Win-win.
In case you haven’t heard, Nana has podcasts for many other famous artists too! So make sure to add them to your other artist studies or homeschool morning basket time.
Nana’s Tasha Tudor Famous Artist Lesson Podcast
An Overview of Nana’s Tasha Tudor Famous Artist Lesson
3:20 Tasha Tudor’s Name 3:59 Famous Friends 5:42 Tasha Tudor’s Farm 6:36 Corgis 7:46 Border Paintings
Listen to Nana’s Tasha Tudor Podcast on YouTube
I Drew It Then I Knew It Famous Artist Companion Curriculum Workbook
Last but most certainly not least is the Famous Artist Companion Workbook. When studying famous artists in your homeschool, you can use the biographies for each artist from the companion workbook. I usually read the biography and five fast facts from the workbook aloud before or sometime during our art lesson.
I love that the art lessons are online and self-paced. So we can pause at any time to read or catch up with our art project if we need to. You will also find helpful resources inside the companion workbooks like planners, book lists, and more to help you round out your famous artist studies.
Other Famous Artists to Explore in the You ARE an ARTiST Complete Clubhouse
We hope that you are inspired to host your own Tasha Tudor homeschool art lesson & tea time too! It’s in these sweet homeschool moments that the best memories are made.
Courtney is a Jesus-pursuing, native Texan, homeschool mom of three, and she believes homeschooling can be a peaceful and productive rhythm. At Grace, Grow & Edify she helps families create peaceful homeschooling atmospheres through faith, organizational strategies, and cultivating strong roots at home.She is also the founder of Homeschool Mastery Academy.
This homeschool lesson has everything you need to learn more about artist Steve Penley and the Statue of Liberty he painted, including a chance to create your own work of art!
Steve Penley was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is known for his explosions of color and historical paintings. While Steve Penley does his artwork with oil paints, Nana shows us how to create his iconic Statue of Liberty with chalk pastels! With this gorgeous painting, I thought it would be a lovely time to add in Nana’s other Statue of Liberty lesson that includes Ellis Island and make a homeschool study all about the Statue of Liberty.
Why is Lady Liberty green anyway?
Statue of Liberty Homeschool Study
With a couple of books on hand, we discovered that the Statue of Liberty is green because of the chemistry of copper. Yes, the Statue of Liberty is covered in a thin layer of copper which has turned green due to reactions with air and water. This green color is called patina.
I prefer to start with a few books for our unit studies, and if the children show more interest as we go along, I’ll find more books or videos on the subject.
Did you know that her official name is Liberty Enlightening the World?
One of the books we chose to start us on our learning adventure of Lady Liberty is the book What Is the Statue of Liberty? This book took us through the history and creation of this famous symbol of America. Lady Liberty was a gift from the people of France. She was designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and her framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. Eiffel is best known for the world-famous Eiffel Tower. (You could even continue your study with Nana’s Eiffel Tower lesson in World Landmarks).
Did you know the Statue of Liberty is mostly hollow?
Another book we chose to add to our homeschool study is When Jessie Came Across the Sea, which tells the lovely story of a young immigrant girl leaving her home for a better life in America. The sight of Lady Liberty gave the passengers of her ship such pause and awe as they entered the harbor, and the illustrations are breathtaking.
Lady Liberty was and is a tremendous beacon of hope and a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.
Statue of Liberty Art Lessons for Your Homeschool
Nana showed us step-by-step how to create our own Steve Penley version of Lady Liberty. She was so colorful and vibrant! With her Famous Artist online art course, Nana brought the Statue of Liberty and Steve Penley right into our home.
Then we recreated New York Harbor with the New York City skyline, the Statue of Liberty, and even boats in the water!
This is just one of the reasons we LOVE our You ARE An Artist Clubhouse Membership! We have access to 700+ video art lessons, including Nana’s Famous Artists series and podcast! Nana makes learning about art and artists intriguing and fun! Be sure to check out her Steve Penley podcast lesson below! In it, she goes over Steve Penley’s life and art. My kiddos truly enjoyed learning about his use of color, bold brush strokes, and even the books he has authored and illustrated.
An Overview of Our Steve Penley Homeschool Lesson – Nana’s From My Back Porch Podcast
Additional Resources For Studying Famous Artists In Your Homeschool
Nana’s Steve Penley Statue of Liberty lesson is a part of our Famous Artists Series. The You ARE An Artist Clubhouse Membership offers 47 famous artists video lessons for your homeschool including:
Vermeer
Michelangelo
da Vinci
Warhol
Monet
Rockwell
Rembrandt
Lichtenstein
Audubon
Beatrix Potter
… and a new one added about once a month!
The Famous Artists series is exclusive to the You ARE an Artist Complete Clubhouse. There is so much to learn about art, artists, and art history! The Famous Artist series is the perfect way to introduce these master artists and their works to your kids!
Erin is a writer, blogger, and homeschooler to two intense kids. Her blog is filled with information to help you explore a child led education while making meaningful connections with your children. Discover favorite read alouds, seasonal books, games, art projects, hands-on activities, and learn to just breathe through the ups and downs of life. She loves nature, farm life, good books, knitting, new pens, and hot coffee. Erin is a contributing writer for Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Her work has also been featured on Simple Homeschool and Book Shark.
This homeschool study has everything you need to learn more about artist Pablo Picasso, including a chance to create your own work of art!
“Everything you can imagine is real.”
Pablo Picasso
Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain, and is widely acknowledged to be one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He experimented with a wide range of styles, mediums, and themes throughout his career. Among many of his contributions to the history of art, his most important include pioneering a modern art movement called Cubism, inventing Collage as an artistic technique, and changing the way to sculpt…not in stone, but plastic! – Nana
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”
Pablo Picasso
Picasso is considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, and it’s easy to see why! He was a genius that was painting like the master artists by the time he was fourteen years old. We dipped our toes into the art and life of Picasso with a couple of great books, Nana’s Famous Artist Picasso Modern Art lesson, and her Famous Artists podcast!
One of the books we chose was the DK Artists: Lives and Works. This is a gorgeous art history reference book that covers over 80 famous artists and their lives. DK Artists: Lives and Works is a book that your kids will return to throughout their art education!
Another book we chose was the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists Pablo Picasso book. This is more of an elementary book, BUT this series of books are fantastic at getting your kids interested in the master artists. Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists is a fun book full of quirky facts and insightful details.
Did you know that Picasso had a pet Dachshund named Lump or that he enjoyed trying all sorts of foods from frog legs to eels? Pretty interesting facts, and my kids thought so too!
Pablo Picasso Modern Art Lessons for Your Homeschool
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
Pablo Picasso
Nana brings Picasso’s art right into your home with her Famous Artists online art course! With a simple set of chalk pastels and a sheet of construction paper, Nana will show you and your children step-by-step how to create your own Picasso Bouquet of Peace AND Modern Art piece. These art projects are so easy and simply beautiful when done.
This is just one of the reasons we LOVE our You ARE An Artist Clubhouse Membership! We have access to 700+ video art lessons, including Nana’s Famous Artists series and podcast! Nana makes learning about art and artists intriguing and fun! Be sure to check out her Pablo Picasso podcast lesson below! In it, she goes over Picasso’s life and different stages of art. My kiddos truly enjoyed learning about his blue period, rose period, and cubism.
An Overview of Our Pablo Picasso Lesson – Nana’s From My Back Porch Podcast
Additional Resources For Studying Famous Artists In Your Homeschool
“I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.”
Pablo Picasso
Nana’s Pablo Picasso art lesson is a part of the Famous Artists Series. The You ARE An Artist Clubhouse Membership offers 47 famous artists video lessons for your homeschool including:
Vermeer
Michelangelo
da Vinci
Warhol
Monet
Rockwell
Rembrandt
Lichtenstein
Audubon
Beatrix Potter
… and a new one added about once a month!
The Famous Artists series is exclusive to the You ARE an Artist Complete Clubhouse. There is so much to learn about art and art history! You don’t want to miss out on all the famous artist goodness.
Erin is a writer, blogger, and homeschooler to two intense kids. Her blog is filled with information to help you explore a child led education while making meaningful connections with your children. Discover favorite read alouds, seasonal books, games, art projects, hands-on activities, and learn to just breathe through the ups and downs of life. She loves nature, farm life, good books, knitting, new pens, and hot coffee. Erin is a contributing writer for Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Her work has also been featured on Simple Homeschool and Book Shark.
We are so excited here at YOU ARE AN ARTiST this month because we are focusing on famous artists! There are so many incredible artists to learn about in your homeschool it’s hard to pick which one to start with. We decided to kick off our studies with a new Horace Pippin homeschool lesson, and we can’t wait to share all the details with you!
One of the best things about including art in your homeschool is that you can combine all ages! Art appreciation with YOU ARE AN ARTiST’s online art lessons can be done family-style, and I love that. There aren’t too many subjects that we can combine with the age gap between my children. That’s why I am super thrilled to dive into some fun art appreciation this month; all of my people around one table creating and learning together make my momma heart happy.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Horace Pippin, he was a self-taught artist who was incredibly talented despite having lost use of his right hand. He has been referenced as one of the most important black painters of American History. So if you are studying famous artists or art history, his story is worthy of your time.
Horace Pippin Art Appreciation Resources for Homeschool
My favorite resource for studying famous artists and art appreciation is the Famous Artist Companion Workbook from YOU ARE AN ARTiST. The workbook is the perfect addition to your art appreciation curriculum. With each artist in the workbook, you will find a fast fact sheet, a biography about the artist, book recommendations, art planners, detective questions, and so much more. You don’t have to search down books or biographies, and as you know, that is a huge time saver for parents.
Another resource that will help bring your Horace Pippin homeschool lesson to life is this beloved book! A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant. It is a colorful telling of Horace’s life, and it pairs perfectly with Nana’s Horace Pippin art lesson. It is also an all-around genuine story of life and perseverance; although it is picture book style, older students and adults love it too. (I certainly did!)
Lastly, as many of you know, Nana has a podcast, and it is a great resource to add to your famous artist studies. She has many podcast episodes dedicated to famous artists, so definitely go check out the podcast. You can hear all about Horace Pippin from Nana’s Back Porch! You could listen to Nana chat about Horace Pippin before or after your online art lesson. Nana’s podcast episodes would also be an excellent addition to morning-time fine arts resources for elementary and high school students.
Learn About Self-Taught Artist Horace Pippin – Listen to Nana’s Podcast
Enjoy Nana’s From My Back Porch Podcast on Horace Pippin! Learn about how Horace Pippin was a self-taught artist and how his paintings became a part of exhibits in famous art museums.
“In this podcast on Horace Pippin, I share a quote from the favorite book that Courtney shared about, above. That book is A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin. I highly recommend you get this beautiful book by Jen Bryant or borrow it from your local library.” ❤️ Nana
Nana’s Horace Pippin art lesson works for all ages! We enjoyed learning about Horace and creating with Nana so much. These colorful pictures are too stinking cute, right? This is just one of many homeschool famous artist lessons for you to enjoy!
I have one child who loves to express her artistic creativity, so when Nana mentions that you can draw whatever you want inside the circle, of course, she went with it! I know your artists will love adding their own special touch too.
There are so many artists waiting to be discovered by you inside the clubhouse. If you don’t have a membership already, you can learn more about one here. We use our membership every week because there is an art lesson for just about anything you are learning about in your homeschool. My kid’s attitudes toward home education are always better when adding visual and hands-on activities like art.
Extension Ideas for Horace Pippin Homeschool & Art Lesson
Color Wheel Activities. There are so many excellent color wheel activities out there to try in your homeschool. Learning and experimenting with colors is so much fun! You can start with a simple color wheel art lesson for preschool and elementary or dive into color theory for older students. Don’t forget if you have high school students that need an art credit, you can utilize YOU ARE AN ARTiST for earning a visual art credit.
Research Horace’s Art and Processes. Horace Pippin created over 140 artworks throughout his lifetime; they included paintings of slavery, racial segregation, daily life, religion, World War I, and more. He has oil paintings, drawings, and self-portraits to see. Interestingly, Horace first began burning designs into wood and painting them with only a couple of colors to highlight parts of the image. He was depicted as a genre artist; find out what genres he painted and why. View some of his many pieces of famous art—research which of his works have gotten the most recognition.
Learn About Other African-American Artists. Another area to explore might be to dive into learning about other great African-American artists like Horace Pippin. You don’t necessarily have to stick with his genre of art. Still, you could learn about African-American artists that broke barriers in art, like Henry Ossawa Tanner and others.
Art Appreciation. One of the best ways to appreciate art is to view it. Take a field trip to a local art museum or exhibit if you can, or the next best thing is to look it up online. There are all sorts of museums with online art exhibits, original works of art, and even commentary to explore when appreciating any genre of art or a particular artist. Discuss pieces of famous art that you like or dislike and talk about why as a family. (And yes, that all counts as education.)
Other Famous Artists Homeschool Art Lessons
Make sure you add some of these other famous artists to your art appreciation studies this year!
Monet
Vermeer
Michelangelo
Norman Rockwell
Van Gogh
Rembrandt
John James Audubon
Beatrix Potter
Degas
da Vinci
Roy Lichtenstein
Betsy Ross
Andy Warhol
and so many more! (YOU ARE AN ARTiST has over 800 homeschool art lessons for you to try!)
As always, we hope that these ideas inspire you to create your own homeschool lessons with art and rich resources that your children will love and remember.
Courtney is a Jesus-pursuing, native Texan, homeschool mom of three, and she believes homeschooling can be a peaceful and productive rhythm. At Grace, Grow & Edify she helps families create peaceful homeschooling atmospheres through faith, organizational strategies, and cultivating strong roots at home.She is also the founder of Homeschool Mastery Academy.
There are many important lessons and truths to be learned from the Civil War. With Nana’s Civil War Hands-On Homeschool Lessons and the accompanying I Drew It Then I Knew It American History workbook, you can reinforce all that you are learning in your homeschool. Don’t miss Nana’s podcast on Sojourner Truth, included below!
While there are Civil War field trips to take to study battlefields, finding Civil War hands-on homeschool lessons for your American history studies may be a challenge. That is simply because there are not very many of these type of resources available. Fortunately, Nana has many Civil War homeschool art lessons to match your studies – from famous people of the Civil War to maps to war equipment and tools. All you need is a starter set of chalk pastels, a pack of construction paper, and your You ARE AN Artist Complete Clubhouse Membership.
Civil War Hands-On Homeschool Lessons And Workbook
“While there were many tragedies, there were also mercies. Many soldiers in both Union and Confederate armies were won to Christ as the Great Revival swept through both camps, mainly during the last, horrific year of 1864. As we read about the close of the war this week, be looking for the hand of God, whose ways are always altogether good and righteous, and who in in the course of this war revealed both His judgment and His mercy.” ~ Tapestry of Grace introduction to week 24, Year 3
Let me share with you the many lessons you can enjoy to make your Civil War homeschool studies more meaningful and memorable! But first, enjoy Nana’s Sojourner Truth homeschool study podcast.
Paint Sojourner Truth as part of your Civil War hands-on homeschool lessons and learn more about this important woman in American history. In the accompanying I Drew It Then I Knew It American History workbook, learn five fast facts and a biography overview of Sojourner Truth. In addition, you can listen to Nana’s Sojourner Truth podcast or read her the podcast transcript.
Learn More About Sojourner Truth with Nana’s Podcast
“We’re going to be speaking about one of America’s most iconic women. Now, I know that sometimes you might think that I use the word iconic a lot. And in fact, I think I do, because we are so fortunate in this country to have important and iconic men and women. And today I want to recognize Sojourner Truth.
Sojourner was born with a different name. Her name was Isabella Bomfree. She later changed her name because she believed that God had told her to travel and speak the truth about slavery.” – Nana
This American history lesson is art in action and can represent all the battles of the American Civil War. You are the artist, so you can add Union or Confederate soldiers.
Underground Railroad Homeschool Lesson
There were many routes that enslaved African Americans would take to escape on the Underground Railroad. You can map out the intricate ‘railroad’ routes with Nana’s maps lesson. Then, to complement your underground railroad lesson, paint Harriet Tubman.
“Twant me, ’twas the Lord. I always told him, “I trust you. I don’t know where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me,” and he always did.
Erin and her artists recently enjoyed Nana’s Harriet Tubman art lesson in their homeschool. Erin says, “Are you looking for fun ways to incorporate American history homeschool lessons? Maybe you already have a history curriculum, but you’re looking for ways to make it more hands-on and engaging. Chalk pastels may be just what you need to get your kids to fall in love with history!”
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
No Civil War hands-on homeschool lessons would be complete without an in-depth look at President Abraham Lincoln. Courtney and her students shared an excellent art time for Presidents Day. It is full of fun learning ideas for President Lincoln! Nana has a President Abraham Lincoln lesson, Abraham Lincoln’s hat and a Thanksgiving Day Proclamation lesson with Abraham Lincoln. So many ways to learn about American Civil War president.
The telegraph was an instrumental tool for communication during the Civil War. Learn more with this lesson and more in Nana’s Inventors homeschool art lessons.
Civil War Hands-On Homeschool Lessons in the You ARE an ARTiST Clubhouse
Take a look at this sampling of Nana’s art lessons available in the You ARE an ARTiST Complete Clubhouse that you can pair with your American history studies to create Civil War hands-on homeschool studies.
Harriet Tubman
Underground Railroad (Map)
Sojourner Truth
Civil War Cannon
President Abraham Lincoln
President Ulysses S. Grant (a general during the Civil War)
United States (North America) map
Telegraph (Inventors)
I Drew It Then I Knew It American History Homeschool Workbook
This resource, available to our Complete Clubhouse members, can be such a valuable tool for your Civil War hands-on homeschool lessons for your American history studies. Workbook series author, Courtney Messick, shares, “In each workbook, you will find a Book List with varying reading levels, 5 Fast Facts, an Overview, Biography, or Writing Prompts, Planners, and Ideas for How To Use our Curriculum. Everything you need for a quick lesson can be found inside. Or use all of the planners included to map out a more extensive study. I also love that the Companion Workbooks help me combine my oldest to youngest learners all in one place over a central topic. There is something special about family-style learning and all of us creating together.
Growing a love of art at You ARE an ARTiST is a multi-generational passion! Tricia is Nana’s daughter and a mama of five children. Nana shared her first chalk pastel art lessons with her grandchildren around Tricia’s kitchen table. Homeschooling since 2000, Tricia has seen the fruits of home education with three homeschool grads so far!She shares the art and heart of homeschooling at Hodgepodge and is author of the book, Help! I’m Homeschooling! She and her husband, Steve, are also owners of The Curriculum Choice.
Here you will find everything you need for a famous artist Eric Carle homeschool study. “Eric Carle is acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and designed picture books children. His best known book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has eaten it’s way into the hearts of millions of children all over the world and has been translated into 66 languages and sold over 50 million copies. Since The Very Hungry Caterpillar was was published in 1969, Eric Carle has illustrated more than 70 books. This includes many best sellers which he wrote. More than 152 million copies of his books have sold around the world!” – Nana
“And the child in me was joyfully coming to life.”
Eric Carle
Listen to Nana’s Artist Eric Carle Homeschool Study
Read Nana’s Famous Artist Eric Carle Podcast TRANSCRIPT HERE.
An Overview of Our Eric Carle Homeschool Study
1:29 The Very Hungry Caterpillar
2:20 Eric Carle’s early life and WWII
4:30 The influence of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and modern painters
5:25 Advertising career
5:40 Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
6:34 The hidden story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar
7:20 The thousands of letters Eric Carle received from children
Listen to Nana’s Artist Eric Carle Podcast on YouTube
“The child I am helping might just be me.”
Eric Carle, about responding to children’s letters
When you think of Eric Carle, you may first think of him as an author, but he was an incredible artist. He wrote and illustrated over 70 children’s books. Carle was born in New York (June 25, 1929) but moved to Germany as a young child. While in Germany, he attended a prestigious art school and thus began his career in art and design. He moved back to New York as an adult and began working in graphic design and advertising.
I knew even as a child that, when I grew up, I would be an artist of some kind.
-Eric Carle
It was not until 1967 that he published his first book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, which he did in collaboration with Bill Martin Jr. In 1968, he wrote and illustrated 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo. He quickly followed that with his most famous book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
In addition to his many books, he created The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art to showcase national and international picture book art. Other museums also have exhibits dedicated to Eric Carle’s illustrations.
In May of 2021, Eric Carle died and left behind two grown children and a legacy in books and art that children worldwide will love for many years to come.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is his most famous book, but my son loved “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” said the Sloth so much that we both had all the words memorized. We own over a dozen Eric Carle books and have borrowed others from the library.
Eric Carle’s books are well known and loved by children and adults alike. They tell fun and silly stories with stunning illustrations.
Many of them are also educational and teach numbers, shapes, letters, or other early concepts.
“When I was a small boy, my father would take me on walks across meadows and through woods… in my books, I honor my father by writing about small living things.”
-Eric Carle
Eric Carle mainly wrote for younger children, but he wrote a book of short stories about his own life: Flora and Tiger, for older children.
I try to express the essence of my stories and ideals very clearly, using simple shapes.
-Eric Carle
Carle had an engaging style for his illustrations. He loved rich colors and created all of his images using collages. He would paint the colors onto large sheets of paper and then hand cut the pieces to put together to create the illustrations.
This unique style makes his illustrations easy to identify and gives the pictures a fun, playful style.
Eric Carle Homeschool Art Lessons
There are so many delightful ways to include art lessons in your homeschool study of artist Eric Carle. Children tend to love his passion for color and his fun animals.
Color Wheel Homeschool Art Lessonin the Style of Eric Carle
First, Eric Carle has a book titled, Hello, Red Fox. This book helps students learn about and understand the color wheel and complementary colors. It would be an excellent book to pair with Nana’s Color Wheel lesson that honor’s Eric Carle. (This lesson would be easy enough for younger students and still teach older students a lot about colors.)
Second, what better way to combine artist study, literature, and art than to do projects based on the main concepts in some of Carle’s most beloved picture books.
For example, you could read A House for Hermit Crab and then try this fun Hermit Crab lesson.
There are many other great pairings from the You Are an Artist Membership courses. You could pick your favorite or do a whole series, including:
For older students, you could even have them try their hand at writing their own short picture books complete with illustrations. They could use the chalk pastel lessons and Eric Carle illustrations as inspiration to help them get started.
Additional Eric Carle Resources
You can visit the Eric Carle website to find out more about his life, see a list of all of his books, and read fascinating answers to some of his more frequently asked questions. There are also some free downloadable games and activities to go along with many of his books.
Another great resource is the thirty-minute video, Eric Carle, Picture Writer. Our family was able to watch the video for free using Hoopla. (Hoopla is a free service offered through many public libraries that allows you to borrow digital materials.)
Additional Resources for Studying Famous Artists in Your Homeschool
Nana’s Eric Carle lesson is a part of our Famous Artists Series. We offer 47 famous artists video lessons for your homeschool including:
Dawn is a passionate follower of Jesus, wife to Chris, and homeschool mom of four. In her spare time she loves to read, hike, and write on her blog Schoolin’ Swag. She enjoys reviewing curriculum and helping moms find the right fit for their family.
Let me tell you a true story of the I Drew It Then I Knew It Homeschool Lessons. This is how art can be a way to engage and mesmerize your students. Get a couple of new packs of soft pastels for your students and watch them take off on a joyous carpet ride to education and fun!
Nana’s Story of I Drew It Then I Knew It Homeschool Lessons
Enjoy Nana’s podcast story of how her I Drew It Then I Knew It lessons came to be.
Additional Resources For Using I Drew It Then I Knew It Art Lessons In Your Homeschool
If you have longed to include the joy of art in your days, we make it easy for you! All it takes is a starter set of chalk pastels, construction paper and Nana’s video art lessons! No expensive, intimidating list of art supplies. As a Complete Clubhouse member you will have access to what you need and you don’t even have to be the art teacher! Clubhouse members get a bank of art lessons for all ages, a wonderful community, plus new art lessons from Nana and themed art events throughout the year!
I Drew It Then I Knew It Maps Art Lessons
If you can visualize a 4th-grade Nana from years ago, come sit next to her and see how much fun maps and geography are! I can show you how to outline the contours of continents and islands and you will say, “I Drew It, Then I Knew It!” It really is fun and you will be surprised at how much you learn! Make Geography Fun with Chalk Pastels!
I Drew It Then I Knew It Presidents Art Lessons
There have been 45 men to hold the office of United States President. There are those that are not familiar to us at all. We will be detectives and find out interesting and maybe even surprising facts about these men! We are going to draw each President, chat about him and you will be able to sit down at dinner and tell you family presidential facts. Did you know that President James Madison was only 5’3” tall? Join Nana for the best presidents art lessons.
Famous Artists Art Lessons for Art Appreciation
Vermeer, Warhol, Grandma Moses, Degas…Wow! These folks are artists that we might have heard of and they were REAL people. These artists became famous because of their skills as an artist! Come along through history and let’s use our pastels to see how they might have seen a girl with a pearl earring or even a famous tomato soup can! Join us for fabulous studies of famous artists with I Drew It Then I Knew It homeschool lessons!
Growing a love of art at You ARE an ARTiST is a multi-generational passion! Tricia is Nana’s daughter and a mama of five children. Nana shared her first chalk pastel art lessons with her grandchildren around Tricia’s kitchen table. Homeschooling since 2000, Tricia has seen the fruits of home education with three homeschool grads so far!She shares the art and heart of homeschooling at Hodgepodge and is author of the book, Help! I’m Homeschooling! She and her husband, Steve, are also owners of The Curriculum Choice.
Join Nana and explore famous artists with her Hudson River School homeschool art lesson. In the early 19th century, a group of American artists dedicated themselves to a style of painting that would have its roots in the United States of America, rather than looking back to Europe for inspiration. They were mesmerized by the great open and untamed landscape of the unexplored territory to the west. That part of the country that lay outside of the cities in the eastern United States.
Hudson River School Show Notes
Highlights
1:55 How Hudson River School Got It’s Name
2:20 Plein Art Style of Painting – What Does Plein Air Mean?
2:37 Three Themes of America in the 19th Century
3:46 Thomas Cole, Founder of the Hudson River School
5:46 The Second Generation of the Hudson River School
5:60 Famous Artist Frederic Church
6:09 Founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
6:40 Famous Artist Albert Bierstadt
7:55 Manifest Destiny and Industrialization
9:19 Hudson River School Paintings at the Smithsonian
The Hudson River School artists’ thoughts lay in three themes : new lands to be discovered, the exploration and illustrations of the untouched beauty, and finally, settlement. These landscape painters helped to create what is known now as the Hudson River School. The Hudson River School was a group of artists whose artistic vision was influenced by Romanticism, and they inspired an American landscape art movement.
Nature, in the form of the American landscape, is a reflection of God.
Hudson River School artists
Famous Artist Frederic Church and the 1860 Great Meteor
American landscape artist Frederic Church was an influential artist from the Hudson River School who painted the 1860 Great Meteor painting from the Catskill evening sky. The 1860 Great Meteor event occurred on July 20, 1860. It was an interesting phenomenon that was reported from various locations all over the United States. There are some fascinating learning trails to explore for the upcoming Perseids Meteor Shower that occurs every year.
Nana is passionate about helping you realize you ARE an artist! Not only an artist with chalk pastels but with homeschooling, creative spaces, favorite family recipes and more. Nana also enjoys chatting – especially about art. If you have followed along with any of her You ARE an Artist video art lessons, you know that. She also enjoys sharing photos and thoughts on topics while she is being creative in her studio space on her back porch. That is where she will be chatting with you – from her back porch. It’s Nana’s You ARE an Artist Podcast!
Famous Artist Andy Warhol was an American artist, film director and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as Pop Art.
In 1961 Warhol came up with the concept of using mass-produced commercial goods in his art. He would use commercial images and produce them over and over. One of the earliest and most famous was the Campbell Soup can. In one painting he had 200 cans repeated over and over!
Andy Warhol was a different kind of artist. While many artists focus entirely on their art and with no interest in personal fame, Warhol wanted to be rich and famous. His paintings have become iconic in American culture.
Nana is passionate about helping you realize you ARE an artist! Not only an artist with chalk pastels but with homeschooling, creative spaces, favorite family recipes and more. Nana also enjoys chatting – especially about art. If you have followed along with any of her You ARE an Artist video art lessons, you know that. She also enjoys sharing photos and thoughts on topics while she is being creative in her studio space on her back porch. That is where she will be chatting with you – from her back porch. It’s Nana’s You ARE an Artist Podcast!
-Special thanks to Erin Vincent and her artists for the beautiful photos.Visit her at Nourishing My Scholar.
