Elements of Art with God in Heart: Discovering Elements of Art Through Theology, Theory, Practice, and Projects in Eight Engaging and Equipping Lessons

By Masha Hemmerling

The Holy Spirit craves a strong Christian presence in artistic communities around the world. With a focus on raising artists who will be that presence, Masha Hemmerling shares an art teacher’s manual, designed to teach visual arts from a Christian perspective.

Hemmerling, a seasoned art teacher and Christian, teaches elements of art through theology, theory, practice, and projects within eight engaging and equipping lessons. Students will learn about God as a Creator of each particular element, why He invented it, and how He used it in His creation. Pupils will discover how each element of art is used in different disciplines, professions, and industries, and how famous artists have used elements in their artwork. After practicing elements with different tools, media, and techniques, students then have an opportunity to create an art project using a step-by-step process of developing artwork from an idea and then switching to pencil drawing or painting, and applying finishing touches.

Elements of Art with God in Heart is a teaching manual that guides Christian artists to rely on God’s grace to inspire their creations, and then become witnesses of His power and unconditional love to be lights in the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664218222

Masha Hemmerling

Masha Hemmerling is a Christian who was born and raised in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She earned a diploma in Fine Arts from the Russian College of Traditional Culture, and later continued her education at the Academy of Methods and Techniques in Management. After immigrating to the United States, Masha started a family and taught art. Today, she teaches art in two private Christian schools, and offers art tutorials and courses at her online art studio, paperpaintandpalette.com.

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Copyright © 2021 Masha Hemmerling.

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Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1821-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1822-2 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/25/2021

Contents

Acknowledgments

Testimonials

Preface

Introducing Elements of Art with God in Heart Course to Your Students

Lessons 1–4 Objectives

Lessons 5–8 Objectives

List of Art Supplies for Students (8 Lessons)

List of Supplies for Art Teacher (8 Lessons)

Lesson #1 Dot

Lesson #2 Line

Lesson #3 Shape

Lesson #4 Form

Lesson #5 Color

Lesson #6 Value

Lesson #7 Texture

Lesson #8 Space

Three Reasons Why I Teach Eight Elements of Art, Seven Colors of the Rainbow, and CMY as Primary Colors

Adapting This Material to a Different Supply List

General List of Supplies (Adopted to a Different Budget)

Helpful Ideas for Games, Stations, and Activities

About the Author

Connect to Masha (Maria) Hemmerling

To all Christian art teachers, educators in private Christian schools, homeschooling

parents, Sunday school teachers, Christian missionaries, leaders of the visual arts

ministries, and many others who, just like Bezalel and Oholiab, have "the ability to

teach others" (Ex. 35:34 NIV) and the desire to equip the next generation of Christian

artists and to prepare them to be the powerful witnesses of God’s faithful love.

He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.

—Exodus 35:35 (NIV)

I work out of love for God and I put all my hope in Him.

—Michelangelo, artist and sculptor

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my family and all my relatives who supported me in this journey: my husband, Walt; my children, David and Alexandra; my father, Alexander Timofeev; my stepmom, Elena Kulagina; and my mother-in-law, Barbara Hemmerling.

My gratitude goes out to my prayer group members, my prayer warriors, and friends who prayed to God for my visual arts ministry and me: Odet King, Sarah Burton, Hailey Altamirano, Betty Kilaghbian, Sophia Park, and Laura Harlan. I am sending my deep appreciation to many other faithful supporters and dear friends like Holly Melton, Nadya Blount, Kristen Brakeville, and Olga Vyalkova.

Especially I would like to thank administrators of Friends Christian School—former Superintendent Jonathan Burton, Middle School Principal Joy Swift, former Administrator of Instruction Kathy Ralston, former Head of School Jerry Haddock, and Elementary School Principal Becky Crandall—for taking a chance and supporting the debut of my program with first-through fourth-grade students.

I am thankful to the Covenant Christian School—former Principal Patty Thoma Lundberg, Head of the School Board Jim Bright, and Business Manager Vicki Bright—for their support of my program and for letting me teach kindergarten through eighth-grade students in the way I believe will glorify our Lord.

I also would like to acknowledge and thank administrators of Evergreen Christian School, Mary and Chris Hebert, who put their trust in me and let me teach and run a beta test of Elements of Art with God in Heart program for their kindergarten through twelfth-grade students, as well as many other art programs.

Also my deep appreciation goes to Headmaster Dr. David Kim, and Campus Operations Manager Priscilla Kim from Veritas Classical Academy for trusting me and my vision of visual arts education, and for letting me to teach JK through tenth-grade students my Elements of Art with God in Heart program along with other programs as well.

My heartfelt thanksgiving and a gratitude are going out to all my former and current art students and their parents for being a huge part of this program. I definitely would not be able to teach my program without you! Thank you for trusting me with your kid’s art education. It was my pleasure and honor to be a part of your child’s artistic development as they were discovering God as the Creator of this world and as the Creator of the Elements of Art.

Testimonials

My son really enjoyed the Elements of Art class created by Mrs. Hemmerling. He came to love art due in large part to this program and Mrs. Hemmerling’s effectiveness in teaching it. I was particularly impressed with her ability to incorporate principles from Scriptures into each lesson as well as technical aspects of the various art techniques. I highly recommend this program.

—Ioana Balos

My daughter absolutely loved attending the Elements of Art program. She felt that the projects were fun and unique, and she liked that it was something new and different than what she had done in other art classes. It was also exciting to see her work displayed at the ACSI Art Festival! I would highly recommend this program to anyone with kids who enjoy art.

—Lori VandenBerg

My daughter Rachel went through Masha Hemmerling’s Elements of Art program for three semesters. She loved the program the first semester and asked to keep going on to each new level of the program. Not only did she learn new techniques and a deeper understanding of the art program, she also learned more about God through new art skills. I actually never had anyone explain art through the Word of God, and that fascinated me. I wanted to take the art program with my daughter. Masha is patient and understanding as an art teacher but will also help her students grow and move on to the next level. We were lucky to experience this program.

–Shanda Kreidt

Our family absolutely loved this program. You introduced our son to the elements of art and instilled in him a love of art. Thank you!

—Keith and Rachael Gallagher

My daughter loved the art instructions she received from Masha Hemmerling because she said they didn’t tell her to connect the dots on paper like the previous class she had taken. In contrast, she learned real concepts of art from the ground up and was able to grasp a well-rounded and complete understanding of why and how to create art. She felt accomplished because she was able to produce the masterpieces all by herself from start to finish as well as take away fundamental skills to continue to create original art pieces on her own. As a parent, I loved the classes because they were framed in God’s Word and the creative perspective of the Creator.

—O. King

My daughter was enrolled in Mrs. Hemmerling’s art program, and it was an amazing experience for her. My daughter is hearing impaired with other learning disabilities. She had always struggled with drawing and art and usually avoided doing those types of activities. However, after attending this program, she loved drawing, coloring, and painting with the many skills that she learned. Her confidence in her work greatly improved, and now she loves to draw and color in her spare time. I’m so grateful for this program and would highly recommend it.

—Lisa Garza

If you are already an artist, like art, or have never done art before, there is something here for you! As a professionally trained artist, Masha is qualified to give top-notch art instruction and is skilled in presenting it in a manner even children understand. She uses her love for Jesus to incorporate teaching about the Bible and the character and nature of God in each lesson. Of course, it only makes sense to include the Creator when learning about creating, and Masha has done this so well. When I first read through her lessons, I was ready to sign up for her art class!

—Becky Crandall, Principal at Friends Christian Elementary, Yorba Linda, California

Mrs. Hemmerling created this art program for the students at our Christian school, and it was a great experience for the students who enrolled in her classes. She used her extensive training and skill as an artist to teach the students the ABCs of visual arts through a biblical worldview. Because the Elements of Art program is so well developed, teachers and parents will be able to use it to help students learn about God and the building blocks of visual arts, applying their skills and knowledge during the project time. At the end of the year, our students were able to participate in the ACSI Art Festival and earn awards for their creative artwork.

—Kathy Ralston, former Administrator of Instruction at Friends Christian School, Yorba Linda, California

Preface

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.

—1 Peter 4:10 (ESV)

The story of how this art program came to life involves a great group of people who stepped in and said yes at the certain time of its development. It all started when a prayer group in Friends Christian School, Yorba Linda, California, was praying and asking God to show me the way in which I could use my artistic gifts. God started opening my