Coloring with Block Crayons
Empahsizing the Primary Colors

A Manual of Coloring Techniques for Teaching to Children

Sieglinde de Francesca

Spiral Bound

$29.95

Now that this book is widely available and in an expanded edition, I can hear grades teachers and homeschooling parents around the world sighing with relief. Aaaah! At last, someone has written a beautiful, clear guide to teaching yourself, and then your students, how to beautifully color with block crayons.

Sieglinde de Francesca's book, originally distributed only through her classes, arrives here in a new, expanded and revised edition, packed with beautiful illustrations and warm guidance. Focusing mainly on the needs of teachers of Grades 1-3, she nonetheless offers instruction that will carry any teacher into the upper grades as well. Here you can learn from a master colorist everything you need to know to guide your young students in the drawing of main lesson pictures and beautiful "anytime pictures."

(nb: Kindergarteners should not be "taught" drawing -- just provide the materials and do your own picture beside them. They'll see and do whatever they need on their own.)

Inside you'll find a complete introduction to the fundamentals of block crayon artistry, including the basic techniques for drawing landscapes, people, animals, seasons and weather.

You'll also find wonderful suggestions and guidance for illustrating Main Lessons and guiding your students to follow your lead toward beauty.

Finally, at the very end, Sieglinde adds the secondary colors and worlds of possibility open wide.

Coloring with Block Crayons is sheer joy! Discover it for yourself and your students.

Drawing with Your Four to Eleven Year Old

Christopherus Homeschool Resources
Practial Waldorf at Home

Donna Simmons

Folder bound

$22.00

This is just the ticket for anyone who is a beginner at teaching drawing to children within a Waldorf context. (It's also great for anyone who is a beginner at drawing, period!)

Donna Simmons clearly covers all the bases, sharing with us her enthusiasm and encouragement to take up this task -- and then giving us the step-by-step instruction for art along the path of the four- to eleven-year-old. There are ample illustrations in black-and-white and full color of both teacher's examples and student's responses. I found that both serve to not only make clear the written directions, but especially to keep the task within realistic proportions. From my perspective, this may be the most important aspect of this book -- it is empowering without ever once being overwhelming. After reviewing it, I was excited to return to my earlier years and pick up the crayons and pencils once again. I think you'll feel this same excitement and the children around you will ride the coattails of your enthusiasm as together you venture into rainbow painted worlds brimming with imagination. Our highest recommendations!

Painting in Waldorf Education

Dick Bruin and Attie Lichthart

Includes CD-Rom with 62 full color and black-and-white images of examples discussed in the text!!!

Softbound

$18.00

Painting in Waldorf Education is an exciting and much-longed-for resource for teachers and parents. This extraordinary book was written by two experienced Waldorf teachers from Holland who present the rationale as well as detailed practical exercises for teaching painting from Kindergarten through the grades and high school years. At last! a step-by-step presentation of the "how" of a painting lesson (beginning with observation and other preparatory exercises for students that are also wonderful for adults!). That the fundamental "why" and "when" questions are also answered makes Painting in Waldorf Education a resource that will be used often and remain in use for many, many years to come.

Included with the book is a CD Rom containing sixty-two color and black and white images selected from the work of their students.

Painting with Children

Brunhild Müller

Softbound

$15.95

This wonderful book is once again available to parents and teachers wanting to explore with children the world of liquid color. And, it is still the best guide ever for those new to wet-on-wet painting and to painting with young children. Here is everything you need to know, even if you've never painted (or never painted this way) before:

• the author begins with a lovely discussion about how children experience the world of color
  
  
• she goes on to offer some thoughts on what she calls "the morality of color." I find that this section inspires me to become more imaginative when I work with colors - it really brings them to life in a very unique way
  
  
• there is a long section, filled with color photographs of both children painting and the paintings they produced, that takes us into the world of children painting with watercolors. This can become a welcome guide for parents who have never done this before - it should help everyone to paint joyfully
  
  
• then, there are clear instructions for mixing the paints, preparing the paper, distributing the water jars, paint pots and brushes
  
  
• ah! and then comes the painting! and the color stories! and the sheer wonder of it all!
  
  
• the author adds suggestions for seasonal painting themes, how to create the stories and what their basis is, the experience of color and the moods of nature
  
  
• finally, there are even instructions for preparing plant pigments for painting and photos showing the soft, inviting colors they produce.

There is so much joy to be had here - I've waited for years hoping for this book to reappear. What a treasure!

Colour Dynamics
Workbook for watercolour painting and colour theory

Angela Lord

Hardbound, beautifully and clearly presented with hundreds of color illustrations and photos

$55.00

Way back in the day, when our own children were first embarking on their Waldorf journey, I longed to be able to learn how to use watercolor paints and discover the wonders of color itself through them. Unfortunately for me, there was no possibility of my taking time out from our home and children to attend art classes and absolutely nothing was in print that could serve as a tutor at home. From what we've heard over the years, many of you have felt the same way -- and those of you who've written to ask know how reluctantly we've answered that what they are looking for really didn't exist.

It is with both relief and joy that we can announce the arrival of Colour Dynamics, the first really complete, beautifully and clearly illustrated, step-by-step workbook for discovering the life and mysteries of color on one's own. For me, it is a dream come true: a thorough tutorial that anyone can use as the foundation for a lifetime of color exploration through the medium of watercolor.

Of course, Colour Dynamics' usefulness extends well beyond parents at home: teachers and therapists will find it both refreshing and deepening; teenagers may well develop a passion for color through it, too. This book has truly raised the bar for artistic instruction as available through the printed page. Both the publisher and the author are due whatever accolades come their way as a result of this wonderful text.

In the case of this book, the journey of a thousand paintings can begin with a single stroke of your brush. It is wonderful!

Highly recommended for adults and teenagers.

Contents:

• Introduction
  • Materials
  • Techniques (for both wet-on-wet and veiled painting)
    
    
• Part One
  • Exploring Colours
  • Painting the Rainbow
  • Combining Colours
    
    
• Part Two
  • Complementary Colours
  • After-images
  • Painting with Complementary Colours
  • Why do Colours Clash?
    
    
• Part Three
  • The Colour Circle
  • Enhancing Colours
  • The Polarity of Red and Blue - A New Colour Circle
    
    
• Part Four
  • Sunrises, Sunsets: The Interplay of Light and Darkness
  • Sunrises and Sunsets as Achetypes: Painting Out of Colour
  • Colour Dynamics: A New Language of Colour
    
    
• Part Five
  • Colour Through History: A Brief Overview
  • Colour Now: Ways to Use this Book
    
    
• About the Author
• Glossary
• Appendix
• Quotations and References
• Credits and Illustrations
• Suggestions for Further Reading

Colour
A Textbook for Anthroposophical Painting Groups

Liane Collot d'Herbois

Softbound

$35.00

Note: This is not intended for use with children, but for adults wishing to explore painting and improve their skill.

Liane Collot D’Herbois was a pioneer of spiritual color theory who explored the artistic and therapeutic qualities of light and darkness in painting.

This book is a combination of her original works that presented her remarkable ideas: Colour, part one (1979) and part two (1981). Preferring to write in “pictures” rather than “chapters,” Collot D’Herbois explains the principles behind her work and demonstrates how each color has its own unique movement and inherent quality.

The author’s third volume is Light, Darkness and Colour in Painting Therapy.

Color
Its Relationship to Soul and Spirit

Lois Schroff

Softbound

$21.95

Includes illustrated step-by-step instruction in Collot d'Herbois veil painting technique! Suitable for beginners, teachers and expert artists.

Profusely illustrated in color and black-and-white.

Lois Schroff's Color - Its Relationship to Soul and Spirit highlights the amazing depth of knowing that lies behind the beautiful paintings of watercolorist Liane Collot d'Herbois, whose application of the color theories of Rudolf Steiner and of J. W. von Goethe, together with her overall understanding of anthroposophical principles, are very much in evidence in her paintings. Lois Schroff has been teaching and painting in this method since 1977, following extensive studies with Collot d'Herbois.

Schroff delves into the mysteries of color, light, and darkness from artistic, scientific and esoteric perspectives. With a detailed "how to" section on the specifics of the Collot watercolor technique, this is nevertheless a book not only for painters, but for everyone interested in color. This edition of the book is expanded by new material based on the author's recent years of teaching and study and by color illustrations of paintings by both Collot d'Herbois and Schroff. An extensive bibliography encourages further research.

Topics include:

• mysteries of light, color, and darkness
• the relationship of light, color and darkness to thinking, feeling and willing
• watercolor painting instruction in the manner of Liane Collot d'Herbois
• dark/light exercises
• prism experiments of J.W. von Goethe

Spirit in Watercolor - DVD
Goethe's Color Theory Applied

A companion to the book Color - It's Relationship to Soul and Spirit (above)

Includes step-by-step instruction and demonstration in veil painting

By Lois Schroff

$29.95

When one thinks clearly about darkness, light and color, it is obvious that their existence is not dependent upon the physical. Darkness and light are primal spiritual phenomena, and the world of color and soul are the result of their interaction."

- Lois Schroff

Lois Schroff has done something that many of us have been hoping someone would do - she has put a class in watercolor veil painting on video so that all those who long for a painting class but do not have a way to attend one can learn this healing and enlivening technique.

This video is the perfect companion to Schroff's book, which contains detailed descriptions and clear black & white photos of the veil painting process. Because painting is a fluid, moving activity, Spirit in Watercolor picks up the instruction where Color - Its Relationship to Soul and Spirit leaves off.

It is with joy and gratitude to Lois Schroff that we offer her video in our shop.

Drawing from the Book of Nature

Dennis Klocek

Softbound

$23.95

Draning from the Book of Nature does double-duty as a book that is about both drawing and the natural world of plant and animal. Here is a wonderful resource for teachers, students or anyone wishing to develop their capacity for the artistic observation of natural phenomena.

Dennis Klocek, with his refreshing combination of depth and clarity, offers a wealth of insight into the lives of plants and animals. His text is enhanced with step-by-step lessons to help the reader bring the kingdoms of nature to life on paper.

Choirs of Colours
A Teacher/Parent Manual on Painting with Children 7 to 14

Alan Whitehead

$22.95

Grateful parents and teachers write almost daily to tell us how much this book has helped them guide the children in their care toward a love of artistic creating. Whitehead presents a spiritual and physical year-by-year exposition on watercolour painting, drawing and sculpture for grades 1-7. Also includes: spirits of colour, physiology of colour, world and Australian painting.

Grail of Beauty
The Seven Soul Arts and the Mission of the Nine Muses

Alan Whitehead

$22.95

Alan Whitehead has given us a lovely overview of the arts from the perspective of Rudolf Steiner's artistic impulse. Here is a tour of the evolution of art, the nature and purpose of the different arts, and - because Alan is, after all, a teacher first and foremost - lots of ideas about how to bring the arts alive in your home, community and school. This is a very joyous and wonderful book which I hope many, many people will be able to read.

Birth of Venus
Grades 8 - 12 Visual Arts
Painting, Sculpture, Drawing

Alan Whitehead

$22.95

A deeply considered, lively overview of the high school visual arts curriculum. Includes: Poster, landscape, watercolour, oils and abstract painting, relief, wood, portrait and stone sculpture, black and white, brush and ink, commercial, portrait and life drawing. Also, art history, grades 8-12.

The Secret Language of Form
Visual Meaning in Art and Nature

Van James

Softbound

$29.95

The pleasures of discovery that lie within this book are so exhilarating that you may want a cup of soothing herb tea alongside so that you won't interrupt yourself too often by jumping up and singing for happiness.

Van James has explored form as it emerges from nature and finds its way into art and from there into the human soul. His journey into the heart of meaning as we humans find it among the many forms Creation has given us constitutes a tour through an Earthly-Cosmic landscape that is at once always grounded yet never removed from spiritual reality. Hundreds of photos, drawings, and paintings greet you to illustrate each illuminate each of the author's observations; and, to evoke wonder and awe in your own heart. This is a feast of beautiful awakening.

Visit this book again and again, to study closely, to keep at hand for those times when inspiration seems far away, for surely you will find it anew within its pages.

Contents:

Part One: The Formative Nature of Art

• Primal Images
• Archetypal Images
  • Curve and Straight Line: The Alphabet of Form
  • Point and Dot: Origin
  • Circle and Spiral: Wholeness and Eternity
  • Chevron, Zigzag and Lattice: Patterns of Humanity
  • Ladder, Spine and Tree: The Ascent
  • Symmetry: The Lawfulness of Balance
  • Cross and Swastika: Death and Transformation
• Archetypal Themes in Art
  • Mandala: Picture of the Universal Self
  • Labyrinth and Maze: Journey to the Center of the Universe
  • Thread and Knot: The World Weaves

Part Two: The Formative Art of Nature

• The Essential Gesture
• The Open Secret
  

Art and Human Consciousness

Gottfried Richter

Preface by Konrad Oberhuber, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University

Softbound

$35.00

This survey of Western art from Ancient Egypt to Picasso looks at visual art in a rich and imaginative way. Gottfried Richter’s lively and penetrating observations will inspire and enthuse the novice, while breathing new life into the thinking of art critics and historians.

Richter concerns himself broadly with architecture, sculpture, and painting—as well as mythology and legend—in presenting the creations of artist and architect as an expression of the evolution of human consciousness. In vivid images he offers the reader interpretive keys to understand this process in all areas of art history.

With many examples the author illustrates how human life has undergone a qualitative transformation as humanity has gradually freed itself from a life determined by spiritual guidance in order to take hold of the sensory world and experience free individuality.

NB: Richter was an expert in Western art, and his few comments about Eastern art, in my opinion, miss the point. Additionally, there are a few places in his discourse where more information is now known or understood than was available to him at the time of writing. Keeping these two things in mind, this is nonetheless an exciting and invigorating journey through Western artistic creation, and a really great book. It was my personal doorway into a lively appreciation of art, and that introduction is something that has continues to enrich and bless my life.