![]() Yes, my first reaction when I saw this cute little book was, “Why didn’t Barbour Books have ME write this for them?!!”īut I really do want the best for all of us and there are plenty of other books left for me to write, so I quickly turned to excitedly buying myself a copy so I could pass on the good news to families and maybe even contact the publishers. It is a “rest from work.I’ve been dragging my feet writing this for months, but when I asked my newsletter readers, you told me I had to do this, so here goes: I don’t think, despite the compliments, that they perceive themselves as artists, or as imaginative because art for them is just something other people do, it is nebulous, yet fun to experience because it doesn’t feel like work. I was thoroughly impressed, not because they accomplished something, but because they learned enough about the artist and his process in order to render their own after it all. The process was painstaking at times (for mom to prep), but the results were delightful. To culminate the quarter, the children made renditions of “ Rest from Work” and had a chance to experiment with collage and mixed media painting. We looked at van Gogh’s “ Starry Night,” “ The Sower,” to name a few, and it was always a window for me to see exactly how my children look at art, and what they perceive it to be. Last quarter, we studied Vincent van Gogh and this quarter we are studying Leonardo da Vinci. In the homeschool, as I’ve mentioned in the beginning of this post, we do picture studies of several artists. Nature-study aids both in discernment and in expression of things as they are. Perhaps half of the falsehood in the world is due to lack of power to detect the truth and to express it. All things seem possible in nature yet this seeming is always guarded by the eager quest of what is true. Nature-study cultivates the child’s imagination, since there are so many wonderful and true stories that he may read with his own eyes, which affect his imagination as much as does fairy lore at the same time nature-study cultivates in him a perception and a regard for what is true, and the power to express it. Anna Comstock wrote in the Handbook of Nature Study: They haven’t seen all the wickedness I have seen in my lifetime and their eyes are reservoirs containing what they view in their nature walks for the first time. They can see things through their mind’s eye with a purity that only I can covet. My children have a wonderful imagination. The very first verse in the Bible declares that He is the creator of the heavens and the earth. The Christian knows that the greatness of our God is infinite, that He is praiseworthy for who else can make what He makes? We appreciate beauty because He lives. ![]() Meandering canyons, raging rivers, and starry nights beg us to respond aesthetically. When we see a beautiful work of art, we are also praising the one who created that work. He ordered it this way and we long to experience it. ![]() We escape our clamorous lives to nourish ourselves in the quiet aromas of living things outside, the peaceful chirp of birds and their calls to God’s rich order. We can agree that the natural world is indeed beautiful. We see the strength of trees towering over our little bodies below, and we see flowers colored in their rich vibrancy until they are plucked and destined to wither. We respond to nature with awe and amazement, because it best explains to us the grandeur of the One who made all out of nothing, who made all things good and beautiful. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handywork. On the days when we venture out to observe nature, absorbing the splendor of God’s creation out of doors, I can’t help but witness what the Psalmist said: I know this is exactly the way God wished to create them at this very season in their lives. When I look at the faces of my children, I see how beautiful their countenance is, how perfectly summoned are the dimples of their cheeks, the furrows of their ears a maze of instrumentation, and the sweet tone of their little voices are a song in the midst of noise. I proposed to study this topic more closely and share some thoughts in a series of posts that will, hopefully, answer some of the many questions I’ve pondered in my walk with the Lord while continuing to teach my children about beauty through picture studies and nature studies. We were discussing music, to be exact, and that, of course, got me thinking more closely about art within a Christian worldview. ![]() The other day during a Bible study with a dear friend of mine, the topic of art and Christianity came up in conversation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |