artists please peek inside - art question

[Slipper]

I am trying to set up a wonderful art curriculum for our girls. My MIL is an artist (and her mother who passed away last year). She has been giving the girls lessons once a month since January. (She lives a couple hours away). We are visiting her now and she's doing extra projects with them currently.

 

My husband's family has very strong artistic and musical talents. One of my girls is talented in both areas and my youngest has a complete passion (and talent) for art alone. For this reason, we will be heavily involved in art.

 

MIL's main art is from sculptures, usually involving metal. She paints as well (commission and contests) but her passion is sculptures. Their (now deceased) great grandmother created sculptures of painted blocks and also painted.

 

I'm trying to set up an art room with painting materials (which we already have) along with wooden blocks (not sure about the metal stuff honestly). They are currently learning about Jackson Pollock (sp?) method of paint flinging and they want to continue doing it at home. They are also starting wooden sculptures.

 

I plan to continue with MIL's lessons, do Meet the Masters as well as studying specific artists (mostly local) to study their style. (Folk art - MoseT for example since we have some of his stuff).

 

Is it going to be harmful to have them learning all different styles rather than sticking to one type? I hate to hem them in since there are so many styles that DH's family does. When I say they are really good, I'm not boasting - they appear to have natural talent and for my youngest, she would happily do nothing but art.

 

Any suggestions?

[momto2Cs]

Harmful? Absolutely not. I say allow them to explore all art options. I have never held my ds11 back in exploring art, and he is extremely talented.

 

I love the idea of using local artists as part of the study. There is an amazing (junk) sculptor who lives near us, and we've visited her studio a couple of times. I also think it is great that your MIL gives them lessons!

 

Go ahead and allow them to experiment. Occasionally introduce one of the great masters of art, introduce different styles/schools, and encourage them to keep up with their own efforts!

[ForeverFamily]

Harmful? Absolutely not. I say allow them to explore all art options. I have never held my ds11 back in exploring art, and he is extremely talented.

 

I love the idea of using local artists as part of the study. There is an amazing (junk) sculptor who lives near us, and we've visited her studio a couple of times. I also think it is great that your MIL gives them lessons!

 

Go ahead and allow them to experiment. Occasionally introduce one of the great masters of art, introduce different styles/schools, and encourage them to keep up with their own efforts!

 

:iagree:

 

It is not harmful at all. It is good for them to branch out and try new things. It will give them more experience to draw from in the future, in other words more tools to work with. No matter what you do they will develop their own artistic style, introducing them to other artists styles will not hurt that. I know what you mean, both my older two Dds are I believe better artists than I was at their age. I am guessing they will be better artists then me when they grow up. That is a lot of pressure on me to teach them art but I think the most important thing to do at this age is just lots of variety and exposure to different techniques and artists. I think it is awesome that your MIL is teaching them. I say keep it up. Expose them to different artists and techniques like you plan to do. Just let them enjoy the artistic world around them. I wouldn't narrow their artistic studies at all at this point, expose them to everything you can. By the time they get to Jr. High or High School they will start to figure out what they like most and be self motivated to work on those specific areas. Thanks for the great reminder ;).

Edited July 11, 2012 by ForeverFamily