Look carefully at the
painting by Claude Monet to the left. Would you like to be able to walk
or swim into this painting? Can you hear the water bubbling? Can you smell
the grass and the sweet air? Is it hot? Is it springtime? Is it morning
or evening?
Monet's paintings don't look like photographs; they don't exactly reproduce reality. The leaves are not drawn one by one and flowers do not have clearly defined petals. Monet's idea was to paint his impressions. When you look at his paintings you feel the gentleness of the sun on your skin, the cool damp grass at the water's edge, the smells that fill the air and the whispering of the wind in the trees. Using simple spots of color, which seem to create an image like a fuzzy picture seen from afar, or perhaps in a dream, Monet tried to convey what he felt as he observed life around him, day after day.
When boating on the Seine river became a fashionable sport, Monet would go to the river to paint. He used paints directly from the tubes to create the strong colors that captured the brilliance of a beautiful Sunday afternoon on the river. He painted very quickly, with large brush strokes. He didn't use many outlines or very precise lines. "The paintings don't look finished!" said a critic at the time. They didn't understand that Monet was just one of a new group of painters who were in the process of creating a new way to interpret the world.
Now you are the artist! CLICK HERE for an outline of Monet's painting of the sailboats. Print out this guide and then color or paint right onto the page. Think about the scene of sailboats and the reflections in the water. Look carefully around you and observe how changes in light create bright spots and dark shadows. Use colors to express your reaction to what you see. What other techniques of Monet's can you use in your painting?