Discovering Great Artists

Discovering Great Artists is a hands-on art-history activity book, a single bound volume profiling more than sixty master artists and pairing each with a studio-ready project in the artist's signature technique.

Last updated: 2026-10-03 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Subject-specialist / unit studies / hands-on activity book
Worldview	Faith-neutral
Grades	K-6 (Chicago Review Press lists ages 5-12)
Formats	Print (paperback); EPUB, PDF, and Mobipocket ebook editions per Chicago Review Press
Cost tier	Budget
Parent intensity	3 (materials gathering and supervision required)
ESA-common	Varies by state
Accredited	No
Established	First published 1996 by Bright Ring Publishing; revised full-color edition from Chicago Review Press, August 2020
Website	chicagoreviewpress.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	3	Solid artist biographies and technique exposure; not an academic art-history program
Ease of teaching	3	Instructions are clear; parent supplies materials and supervises process
Content quality	5	Carefully chosen artists, genuinely technique-specific projects
Flexibility	5	Standalone book; use as spine, supplement, or one-project-a-week enrichment
Value for money	5	A full year of elementary art history for the price of a paperback
Worldview scope	5	Usable across every worldview family
Visual/design	3	Paperback activity-book layout; the 2020 revised edition is full color throughout
Support resources	3	Self-contained book; no current companion site verified

Who the publisher is

Discovering Great Artists was written by MaryAnn F. Kohl and Kim Solga and first published in 1996 by Bright Ring Publishing, whose site described its catalog as children's art activity books by MaryAnn F. Kohl. The current edition, revised to include full color throughout, was published by Chicago Review Press in August 2020.

Chicago Review Press's author biographies describe MaryAnn F. Kohl as the award-winning author of Great American Artists for Kids, MarthArts, and Action Art, and Kim Solga as the author of Paint!, Draw!, and Make Prints! Kohl's other Chicago Review Press titles include Mudworks (1989), Good Earth Art (1991), and Storybook Art (2003), listed on the same page.

The publisher presents the book as artist biographies paired with hands-on art activities, not as part of a faith-based curriculum (Chicago Review Press).

The core pedagogy

The house method is chronological artist-by-artist study paired with a hands-on project in the artist's approach. Per the publisher's description, each artist receives a concise biography and a kid-tested art activity, with icons indicating the experience, preparation, and materials each project needs and a guide to the style, movement, or era of each artist. The child reads or listens to the biography, then makes the project.

Signature mechanics: (1) Technique specificity. The publisher's description lists techniques such as block printing, pointillism, and mixed media, and a reviewer quoted on the same page says children mix paints into a thick substance called impasto and paint with heavy, swirling brush strokes to experience Van Gogh's style. (2) Chronological organization. The artists run from the Renaissance to the present per the original publisher's description, and Booklist, quoted on the Chicago Review Press page, describes the chronological order and icons as letting parents and children dip in and out of the guide with ease. (3) Varied media. A reviewer quoted on the Chicago Review Press page lists projects in ink, acrylic paints, watercolors, pastels, collage, and clay, and the icons in each activity flag the preparation and materials required.

What they do exceptionally well

Technique-based projects. This is the book's defining strength. The publisher's description says young artists create a clay carving to understand Rodin, draw in a nature notebook like Audubon, and try techniques such as block printing, pointillism, and mixed media. The projects aim to give children a physical understanding of what an artist did, not just a decorative souvenir.

Artist selection. The current edition covers over 60 great artists across the ages; the original Bright Ring edition covered over 80 great masters from the Renaissance to the present. The publisher's description names da Vinci, Audubon, Rodin, Picasso, and Kahlo, and spans architecture, drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture.

Price. List price is $21.99 for the trade paperback on the Chicago Review Press site as of October 2026, with ebook editions listed at $12.99 (EPUB), $12.99 (PDF), and $9.99 (Mobipocket). Copies are also sold through retailers such as Amazon. A family can purchase the book once and use it across multiple children and multiple years.

Flexible use. Booklist, quoted on the Chicago Review Press page, describes the chronological order and icons as allowing parents, educators, and children to dip in and out of the guide with ease.

What they do poorly

Biographies are concise. The artist biographies are enough to contextualize the project but not enough to serve as a complete introduction to the artist's life and significance. Substantial biographical reading would need a separate biographical source.

Visual reproduction of art. The 2020 edition is full color throughout, but the book's focus is the project rather than the masterwork. Children who want to see the art at scale benefit from a separate source such as library books, online museum collections, or Google Arts & Culture.

Parent materials preparation. Projects require materials gathering. In our assessment, an art-supply cupboard takes real time to maintain with a hands-on art program, which is worth noting for families used to paper-only curricula.

No structured sequence of skill-building. The book is organized by artist chronology rather than by technique progression. A child working through it in order does not progressively build pencil drawing, then painting, then sculpture in a developmental arc; they encounter whichever technique the next artist's signature work requires. This is a feature for art-history orientation and a bug for art-technique instruction. Families who want a progressive drawing-skill arc paired with art history would need a separate technique resource.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Discovering Great Artists if: you want a faith-neutral, broadly usable, hands-on art-history spine for elementary grades; you run a Charlotte Mason or unit-study curriculum and want a project book to accompany picture-study; you want one volume that covers the year rather than a multi-book program; you value technique-accurate projects over decorative crafts; you have limited budget for art materials and prefer low-cost common supplies.

• Skip Discovering Great Artists if: you want full-color art-book visuals of the master works themselves (pair with a separate book instead); you want substantial biographical reading built into the spine; you want progressive technique instruction building skill over time; you want video-based art instruction; your children are too old for the K-6 target range (the book can extend to middle school with parent adaptation but is not aimed there).

Cost honest assessment

Discovering Great Artists lists at $21.99 in trade paperback on the Chicago Review Press site as of October 2026, and the ebook editions are listed at $9.99 to $12.99 (EPUB, PDF, Mobipocket). Copies are also sold through retailers such as Amazon. A family also needs art supplies; the icons in each activity indicate the preparation and materials the project requires.

Compared to the You ARE an ARTiST Homeschool Fine Arts plans (co-written by Harmony Fine Arts founder Barbara McCoy per the publisher's page, with the Grade 2 plan listed at $47.00 as of October 2026, plus materials), Discovering Great Artists is a single-purchase resource that spans multiple grades. The Artistic Pursuit and How Great Thou Art are sold as multi-volume or multi-level programs through their own sites, so a family can compare their current prices directly with the one-book cost above.

ESA eligibility notes

Because Discovering Great Artists is a faith-neutral, single-volume activity book, ESA eligibility in permissive states is generally straightforward, the title often appears on approved-vendor lists through marketplaces like Amazon or Rainbow Resource where those marketplaces are ESA-integrated. Because the book is technically a single trade paperback rather than a curriculum bundle, some ESA programs classify it as a supplementary rather than a core resource, which affects approval thresholds in specific states. Families should verify title-level approval through their specific state portal, particularly in states that distinguish between curriculum purchases and supplementary book purchases.

Alternatives

• How Great Thou Art, a family would choose How Great Thou Art over Discovering Great Artists for an explicitly Christian art-history curriculum with video instruction and progressive technique-building, accepting a specific worldview framing.
• You ARE an ARTiST Homeschool Fine Arts, co-written by Harmony Fine Arts founder Barbara McCoy per the publisher's page, a family would choose these plans over Discovering Great Artists for grade-level art and music appreciation plans for Grades 1-12 that follow a classical four-year cycle of history with a Charlotte Mason flavor.
• Mike Venezia "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists" series, a family would choose the Venezia series over Discovering Great Artists for biographical-depth artist profiles with full-color reproductions, then pair with a separate technique resource for hands-on projects.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed the Chicago Review Press product pages for the trade paperback and ebook editions, the archived Bright Ring Publishing product page for the original edition, and the You ARE an ARTiST Homeschool Fine Arts page in October 2026. Prices verified October 2026.