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Happy Birthday, Claude Monet
Happy Birthday, Claude Monetn
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nThe French impressionist painter Claude Monet was born on this day in1840.
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nImpressionism is a 19th-century art movement that features small, visible brush strokes, open composition, ordinary subject matter, and an emphasis on the portrayal of light in all its varieties.
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nMonet was one of the founders of this movement, and he and a small group of painters working in Paris, France, broke the standards then upheld for art:
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- Old standard: Paint realistically.
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Impressionists painted their own personal emotional impressions of people or scenes.
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- Don’t let the brush strokes show! It will look like a painting, not reality!
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nRevel in the brush strokes! A painting can look quite different close up from afar.
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- Use somber, realistic colors.
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nPlay with colors. Dab different colors next to each other, perhaps—let them mix together in the viewers’ eyes.
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- Paint historical themes, religious themes, and portraits.
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nPaint anything, particularly nature (that is, landscapes).
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- Paint grand people and events in formal poses.
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nPaint ordinary people in casual poses. Paint everyday life and events.
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nThe name for the movement came from one of Monet’s paintings, Impression, Sunrise.
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nMonet became known for his paintings of haystacks, gardens, and water lilies, but he painted a wide range of landscapes and seascapes.
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nCelebrate Monet!
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nRead the book Linnea in Monet’s Garden, by Christina Bjork and Lena Anderson. (There is a video as well, available from Amazon or Netflix.)
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nEnjoy a slide show of Monet’s work.
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nMonet made a series of paintings of water lilies. Check out the colors he used and the lighting and seasonal variations he captured here. Watch a modern painter creating a water lily painting here, for even more inspiration.
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nThen try your own hand at painting water lilies.
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nYou may want to try moist chalk (pastel) on wet tempera paint on oatmeal paper (or construction paper). After drawing a simple rough draft on the paper, paint a small area, no larger than your fist, with white tempera paint. Next, moisten the chalk and quickly draw on the still-wet paint. You can blend several colors of chalk, and of course the chalk will blend with the paint as well. Here are some specific directions.
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nAt the Garden of Praise website, there are paintings, a simple biography, a jigsaw puzzle, and other puzzles and games.
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