This book was inspired by a type of art project that the author enjoyed back in the 1960s when art classes were a part of the regular curriculum in grammar school. This book focuses on Christian paintings and includes historical background information including the religious significance of the subject matter with some Bible quotations and stories from the lives of the saints.

Each art extension in this book begins with a color reproduction of a great art masterpiece, which is centered on a larger page. Then by drawing freehand and coloring what one has drawn one extends the painting around the edges to match or accent the artwork.

Using one's imagination and creativity, one can extend the original art in a variety ways. For example, if there is a river in the original painting, it could continue out to border, bend and flow behind hill, or whatever one imagines. As an alternative one could color in highlights or designs in the background. There are really no rules, but the original idea of an art extension was to match the style and colors of the art masterpiece so that one could hardly tell where the original artwork ends and the extension begins.

The author hopes each person using this book will draw and color what inspires them. One can use any choice of colors or designs.

Many types of coloring media may be used from colored pencils, crayons, felt tip markers, to pastels. It is good to pick a media that can be blended or has many different color choices in order to match the original such as a set of colored pencils or a large box of crayons with many shades and colors. The back and front cover show the art masterpieces included in the book as well as the page design with the white area to draw in surrounding the masterpieces. Using this book can help improve creative drawing and coloring skills by studying and copying how the famous artist created their art masterpiece and then trying to duplicate and/or enhance the original artwork.