Art Appreciation

Here we are in October already with several weeks of schooling out of the way. Our habits of reading the Bible daily, followed by a poem and nature walks on Monday has been working out very well so far. Today I somewhat reluctantly added art appreciation. We were studying a Picasso painting entitled "A Family of Saltimbanques". I'm not a fan of Picasso but I enjoyed studying this painting with the boys. I had them study the picture for about 5 minutes. Then we covered up the painting and then asked them to describe it. Then we looked at it again and I asked them how it made them feel. I was amazed at what they read into the painting. They both said it had a sad feeling. My 10 year old son said that he felt the lady with the hat represented Picasso and his feeling misunderstood in the art world. Wow! He also noted the coloring of the lady with the hat was the same as the boy in blue and the girl in pink and that perhaps they were related. They also said that the group was on the move. They also noted the barren location and that it added to the sad feeling of the piece. Their observations took me by surprise and now I am sorry we didn't start this sooner. I thought they wouldn't really enjoy this part of our day, but it turned out to be the highlight!