Showing posts with label Impressionism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Impressionism. Show all posts

November 14 - Happy Birthday, Claude Monet

  Posted on November 14, 2021


This is an update of my post published on November 14, 2010:



The French impressionist painter Claude Monet was born on this day in1840.

Impressionism 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.
Monet made two paintings of the Rouen Cathedral,
one in full sun and the other in morning light.

Haystacks (Midday), by Claude Monet

Monet was one of the founders of the Impressionist movement, and he and a small group of painters working in Paris, France, broke the standards then upheld for art:

  • Old standard: Paint realistically.

    Jacques-Louis David, Oath of Horatil
Impressionists painted their own personal emotional impressions of people or scenes.
Camille Monet and a Child in the Artist's Garden at Argenteuil, by Claude Monet
  • Old standard: Don't let the brush strokes show! It will look like a painting, not reality!

    Detail from Titian painting
Impressionists reveled in the brush strokes! A painting can look quite different close up from afar. 
Visible brushstrokes from Vincent van Gogh, above, and Claude Monet, below


  • Old standard: Use somber, realistic colors.

    The Mill, by Rembrandt van Rijn

    Impressionists played with colors. They dabbed different colors next to each other, at times—letting them mix together in the viewers' eyes.

 


  • Old standard: Paint historical themes, religious themes, and portraits.

Battle of La Hogue, by Benjamin West
Impressionists painted anything and everything, particularly nature (that is, landscapes).
Landscape in Giverny, by Claude Monet
  • Old standard: Paint grand people in formal poses - and grand events.

Portrait of Anne, Countess of Chesterfield, by Thomas Gainsborough
Impressionists painted ordinary people in casual poses and everyday life and events.

 

Oarsmen at Chatou, Pierre-Auguste Renoir


The name for the movement came from one of Monet's paintings, Impression, Sunrise (pictured below).


Monet became known for his paintings of haystacks, gardens, and water lilies, but he painted a wide range of landscapes and seascapes.

Celebrate Monet!

Read the book Linnea in Monet's Garden, by Christina Bjork and Lena Anderson. (There is a video as well.)

Enjoy a slide show of Monet's work. 


Monet 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. 

Then try your own hand at painting water lilies.

You may want to try chalk or 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. 

At the Garden of Praise website, there are paintings, a simple biography, a jigsaw puzzle, and other puzzles and games. 



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May 22 - Happy Birthday, Mary Cassatt

 Posted on May 22, 2021

This is an update of my post published on May 22, 2010:





Born on this day in 1844 in Pennsylvania, U.S., Mary Cassatt became an important and well-known painter. She is grouped with the painters known as Impressionists.

This painting is by Claude Monet, one of the early
Impressionists and considered a leader of the 
Impressionist movement. He called this painting
Impression, Sunrise. It's one reason that the name
Impressionism became attached to the art movement.

Impressionism is an art style that tends to have visible brush strokes and is often painted in bold colors. Because of these two traits, impressionist paintings look “fuzzy” and unrealistic up close but often look very realistic from farther back.

Close up, you can see each brush stroke.
From farther back, the fuzziness of the picture
resolves as our eyes / brain mix nearby colors and
see forms.

There is usually an emphasis on changing light as opposed to realistic detail, and the subjects are usually ordinary objects and people rather than very grand people and gods in the midst of very grand events. Cassatt's favorite subjects for her paintings were mothers and children.



Cassatt was the only American invited by Edward Degas to exhibit with the Paris-based Impressionists—but, although she was American born and raised, she lived in Paris most of her adult life.


Cassatt is also considered an excellent printmaker, and a set of her color prints called The Ten became a landmark in Impressionist printmaking.

Learn more about Impressionism

Here is a website - including a short video - about Impressionism. And here is a how-to paint like an Impressionist lesson! 

Dabble with Impressionism

In order to create an Impressionistic painting, dab various colors of paint onto the paper instead of outlining shapes with the paintbrush and then filling in.

It might help you to remember to dab, not outline/fill in, if you paint with an unusual item rather than a brush. Try cotton swabs or the small end of chopsticks to apply paint to the paper.

Some kids make Impressionist-type paintings
using finger or thumb prints!

Use lots of different strong colors that will blend in our eyes / brain. As you paint, squint your eyes or stand back from your piece to see how it will look farther away.

Explore Cassatt's Paintings
Read about Mary Cassatt's life. This is a quickie bio—but an interesting one! Learn why Cassatt's father said, “I would rather see you dead!”

Enjoy Jenny and Her Child—and think about the questions posed on the website.


Get a close-up view of The Boating Party by clicking "Image Viewer" and then clicking the percentages at the top of the screen.


Find out more about Cassatt and The Boating Party. And do a jigsaw puzzle! Or online coloring!



Also on this date:


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