Hi dlellockman,
Dry brush or brush-painting in a CM education is the technique of using just enough water on the brush to pick up the paint. In addition to using the technique for nature journals, Charlotte Mason alternated brush-painting with either printing or writing twice a week for Class I, the equivalent of our Grades 1-3.
Brush painting lesson: These were simple lessons and no formal training on a mother’s part is necessary. Reverence and care for the paints and brushes were taught (ie neatness, how to hold the brush, how to continually pick up enough paint so as not to “mop” the brush, start with a light color (yellow) for the initial rendering as it can be gone over easily if needed, how to clean it between colors, how to clean and store the brush at the end of the lesson). A simple object (a book, a box, an apple, a lemon, etc.) would be placed a few feet away from the student (so they would not be distracted by detail) to paint. Charlotte believed that children would find their way around form and color themselves. In the later years, a more formal art course took place in the afternoons. This was a correspondence course and you can read more about it if you like in the Fesole Papers in the Parents’ Review articles.
Nature Journal: Charlotte stressed the goal of the nature journal is to enhance the child’s powers of observation and their appreciation of nature and is not meant as a vehicle for formal drawing instruction. I’ve written two articles on the mechanics of nature journaling where brush painting (when/why) is discussed.:
The Art of Keeping a Nature Journal
More Mechanics of Nature Journaling
HTH,
Richele
