Monet Waterlilies Teaching Impressionism

I love Impressionism Monet is one of my favorite artist (I named my dog Monet Picasso).

Monet Picasso – December 2007

I watched the In the Zone Episode on June 20 and decided I needed to incorporate Impressionism into a children’s project for my show In the Paint Box. I started doing some research and found a book: 13 Paintings Children Should Know and Monet’s Waterlilies is one of the thirteen.

I decided I wanted to search for an actual project, I turned to one of my favorite magazines Arts and Activities I found on-line Issues Jan 2010 had an amazing article for Kindergarten age students “I ~ Impressions of Impressionism”.

Playback for In the Paintbox

There are several important items that should be pointed out with Impressionism:

Short, thick strokes rather than detail
Colors laid side by side rather than mixing on a palette.
The use of black paint is avoided. Dark shadows are created by using complementary colors.
Wet in Wet. Impressionist did not let the layers dry in between applications or use varnish or thinners in anyway.
The play of natural light is emphasized (think Monet’s Haystacks)

Information from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism

I decided to change mine up a little we used blue and green construction paper instead of white paper. I thought the blue would help with the illusion of water and conserve paint.

Materials Needed:
Blue and Green Construction Paper
Light Blue (I used Aqua Acrylic) and White Paint
Paint Brush
Styrofoam Plate (to put paint on)
Non-Toxic Oil Pastels
Scissors
Glue Stick
Waterlily Template or you can free hand it