Claude Monet

Impression sunrise By Claude Monet

Monet painted this misty sunrise from a hotel window that looked out upon the harbor of Le Harve, one of the busiest seaports in France. In the dim moring light, you can see smoke stacks and the masts of a sailing ship refelcted in the water. The impressionists got their name from a critic who disliked their work. In 1874, Louis Leroy attended the first independent art exhibition in Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, Pissarro and others exhibited their paintings. In his nasty review of Monet's Impression Sunrise, he wrote, "Wall paper in its embryonic state is more finished than this landscape." He went on to all them all 'Impressionists." Even though the critic meant to insult them, the artists liked the term and began to use it themselves. Monet said, "I am, and always will be, an impressionist."  -Excerpt from The Impressionist Art Book by Wenda O'Reilly

Since we did a little look at how to paint before we learned about Monet it seemed fitting that we should try out our painting skills on some fo his simple paintings. The haystacks were done with a coloring page printed onto cardstock and then we mixed out paint and went to work.

This is TJ's up close. Just like the impressionists his painting looks better at a distance. (smile)

We also painted water lilies.

We also painted water lilies with a watercolors and crayon resist. Art Projects for kids has a great lesson plan to follow.

We filled out an artist bio sheet and added stickers of Monet's art work.

Finally we colored some of his paintings from coloring sheets while looking at the 'real thing' on my laptop.

"The Walk" by Max

"The luncheon" by TJ

"Boardwalk at Trouville" by Zak

TJ at work.

We  read three books during this study:

Katie and the Impressionists by James Mayhew

Linnea in Monet's Garden by Christina Bjork

The Impressionist Art Book by Wenda O'Rielly

I made these montessori cards to learn 12 of Monet's wonderful works. We played go fish and concentration with them mostly.

"Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love." -Claude Monet