Monthly art-history lessons for grown-ups reading along with kids.
A video and a written guide for one artist or art movement at a time. Picasso, Vermeer, Frida Kahlo, Helen Frankenthaler, Hokusai — across centuries and continents, the lessons share one assumption: curiosity is the prerequisite, not expertise.
Top lessons
Artist
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci's life and the Mona Lisa's sfumato shading lead into a project where you sketch and label your own invention, thinking like him.
Artist
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh's life and struggles, then paint alla prima in his style with thick, side-by-side strokes of harmonizing and contrasting color.
Artist
Claude Monet
Explore Claude Monet and the Impressionist movement, then paint a loose landscape using bold impasto strokes and dabs of color to capture fleeting light.
Artist
Frida Kahlo
Students explore Frida Kahlo's symbolic self-portraits, then paint their own from a mirror to capture both their likeness and inner feelings.
Artist
Vermeer
Meet Dutch Golden Age genre painter Johannes Vermeer and his light-filled scenes, then paint your own simple everyday scene with acrylics on tag board.
Artist
Katsushika Hokusai
Japanese ukiyo-e master Katsushika Hokusai's life and woodblock prints, then carve your initial or a simple design into soft cork to make an inked stamp.