We’re using Mary Ann Kohl’s “Discovering Great Artists” this year. The book features a little bit of information about each featured artist, along with an art project in his or her style. It’s a really nice resource — so far we’ve done a collage in the style of Hans Arp, a Ghiberti-influenced relief and a some “one-color” paintings a la Picasso — but it doesn’t have terrific illustrations of the actual art.

I’ve been trying to find an inexpensive source for that, so I was just thrilled to discover that the National Gallery of Art has an awesome education department. They’ve put together downloadable teaching kits, and they also have a mail-order loan program for DVDs, CD-ROMs and the like. I used their Picasso kit last week, and the quality of the art and instructional materials was wonderful. Next week, we’re going to be talking about Degas and how to portray motion — and the National Gallery has materials about that very thing! Way to go, National Gallery!

Do you know of any other free art resources? I’d love to hear about them.

The painting is from Poppy’s “rose period.” It’s called “The People Who Are Always Stuck in Mud.” Creepy, yes?