"A valuable resource for learning or renewing your art skills... With the book as a guide, my granddaughter and I enjoyed painting watercolors together. Cori Schaff makes the fundamentals fun." -Carol Strickland, PHD, author of The Annotated Mona Lisa: A crash course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern " Art for All Ages's purpose is to go beyond the mechanics of creating art to fire up the inspiration that promotes it in the first place. This approach places Corinne Miller Schaff 's book in a category of its own... " -Midwest Book Review, D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer The world is becoming more visual, inspired by technology that continually provides more ways to communicate visually. New opportunities call on us to improve our visual literacy. That means understanding what we see and being able to communicate it, the very skills this book is designed to help you acquire. Art for All Ages is unique in that it combines quality "how-to" art instruction with self-discovery in three integrated parts: Recipes for Success The activity lessons in Art for All Ages are time-tested-selected from visual curriculum the author developed over 35-years teaching art in public schools, and privately to adults and multi-generational groups of all ages. Art history is an important component, seamlessly available within the lessons. Essential Ingredients Each Recipe for Success calls for its own Essential Ingredient, one or more art skills that you will use to complete the Recipe's activity. Adults and adults along with children can dive into the book at any point to find inspiration, choose activities, and acquire skills in fun, "user-friendly" ways. Self-Discovery The author is passionate about nurturing the artists' experience: an energized focus, feelings of reconnection, and centeredness that are, above all, therapeutic. Gems await you in the book's Self-Discovery sections. Some chapters, like "Brain Facts & Your Innate Creativity," unwrap key discoveries. Others are more inspirational, like "Mindfulness, Meditation & Art." All explore inner benefits that this book invites you to experience. "Art for All Ages is a brilliant resource for anyone wanting to explore art making as a tool for meditation and personal growth-and so much more!" -Whitney Freya, Artist, Author of Rise Above, Free Your Mind One Brush Stroke at a Time Make a well-deserved appointment with yourself to explore your creative capabilities. Make art in the Art for All Ages way and enjoy re-igniting your artistic self.
Art For All Ages is a philosophy and inspiration guide for finding or regaining a creative spirit and inspiration through guided activities. Released 7th Jan 2020, it's 192 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.
This is an interesting book with specific exercises for tapping and improving creativity and making learning pleasurable and self rewarding. The introduction includes a very well written and accessible technical discussion of the stages of learning, different types of creativity, semiotics (universal symbols), and some very basic neurology as it relates to learning.
The following chapters contain specific guided exercises for unleashing innate creativity and allowing learning to be enthusiastic, pleasurable, and fun. Most of the exercises are accompanied by the basic theory behind the instruction as well as alternative parameters. Along with the education theory there is a lot of good practical content on tools, supplies, brush care, paint use and more.
There are many tutorials in the book color/symbol coded for the age groups for which they're appropriate. The activities have writing prompts to analyze and incorporate the learning (how did you feel, what did you think, what were you satisfied with... and such). There's also an abbreviated bibliography and links list along with some bonus activities like art parties, group activities such as making an art club, and more.
This would be a superlative text for educators, art therapists, child carers, parents, adult learners, journalers, and pretty much anyone who has felt stuck and blocked before (that's everyone, more or less). I loved the author's enthusiastic writing style and many of the tutorial activities were appealing and looked fun. The book is also well illustrated and very colorful.
Five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
