Monet ( ) “My only merit lies in having painted directly in front of nature, seeking to render my impressions of the most fleeting effects.” —Claude Monet Oscar Claude

Oscar Claude Monet French Founder of French Impressionist Painting The term “Impressionism” was picked up from the title of Monet’s painting Impression, Soeil Levant (Impression Sunrise,”) which was exhibited in1874. Impressionistic paintings appeared to the public as if they were unfinished or sketch-like. Impression, Soeil Levant, 1874

The Young Monet Monet became known for the funny drawings he did (caricatures) of people in town. His drawings earned him money and made him very popular. He was then noticed by an artist Eugene Boudin a man that became a mentor to Monet. Boudin introduced Monet to plein air landscape painting (painting outdoors.) He had a hard time sitting in class and preferred to be outside. His mom supported his love of drawing and art, but his dad wanted him to follow in his footsteps and be a businessman. c “Caricature of a Man with a Large Nose” Graphite on paper 25 x 15 cm

Monet Learns and Struggles Pursuing his career in art, Monet was surrounded by painters that he creatively connected to: Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley and Bazille. Even though his work was accepted into a huge annual art show at the Salon in Paris in 1865, he still struggled to make a living as an artist. He married Camille Doncieux whom he painted many times (the Woman in Green.) He would get very frustrated with his paintings and often throw them away. It is said that he destroyed as many as 500 paintings. “Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” —Claude Monet “The Lady in the Green Dress,” 1866, oil paint “The Promenade, Woman with a Parasol,” 1875, oil paint

Successful as an Artist In the late 1880s and 1890s, Monet created his serial paintings and was successfully living as an artist. One series he painted between was of the Rouen Cathedral in Northern France. Different paintings showed the building in morning light, midday, gray weather and more; this repetition was a result of Monet's deep fascination with the effects of light and the fleeting moments of nature. “I would like to paint as the bird sings.” —Claude Monet

Monet – The Later Years Around 1912 Monet’s eyesight in his right eye began to fail. He continued to paint through sadness and continued loss of sight in both eyes. He had beautiful gardens at his Giverny home (which is now a museum that celebrates Monet’s life.) Many of his later paintings were of his extraordinary gardens. He hoped that his garden pieces would soothe the “overworked nerves” of viewers. “Water Lilies and the Japanese bridge,” , oil paint “These landscapes of water and reflection have become an obsession for me. It is beyond my strength as an old man, and yet I want to render what I feel.” —Claude Monet

Orangerie des Tuileries Project The Orangerie des Tuileries project consumed much of Monet’s last years. He chose to make them on a very large scale, designed to fill the walls of a special space for the canvases in the museum; he wanted the works to serve as a "haven of peaceful meditation.”

STEPS ONE - FOUR 1. Put your name on the back of your paper using a light colored chalk. 2. Draw a curved horizon line 1/3 of the way down the paper. 3. Then draw two more lines to break the section so that you now have four areas of your paper. 4. On the top line draw the outline of three trees This is a good time to talk about the rule of odds. One of the simplest ways to make a composition more dynamic is to have an odd number in the composition, say three, five, or seven, rather than an even number, say two, four, or six. It's called the Rule of Odds. Having an odd number of things in a composition means your eye and brain can't pair them up or group them easily. There's some how always one thing left over, which keeps your eyes moving across the composition

STEP FIVE 1. Color in your tree trunks first. Extend the brown a little bit into the circle of the tree leaves. You will go over that with color. 2. Let’s make it fall for our trees. Pick three leaf colors that remind you of fall and assign one color per tree. 3. Remember that this is black paper so you may need to really add layers of color to make it show.

STEPS SIX AND SEVEN 1. Pick a couple of blue colors for the sky to contrast against the colors in the trees. 2. Think about how you are going to color the three split sections of field colors. Will they match the trees foliage? Will they be colors from a Dr. Seuss book? 3. Have fun with this step but keep in mind that tying the colors of the trees to the field adds a visual connection. And surely any connections in nature Mr. Claude Monet would approve of.

FINISHING 1. Add a little bit of shadow from the trees in the top layer of the field by using a slightly darker color. 2. Monet loved how light is portrayed by contrast in colors. a)Add some white to the sky. b)Add a lighter color in each section in the field c)Add a darker color in each section of the field 3. The key to Monet’s success was that he didn’t capture itty bitty details, he left us with an impression of a landscape and let the softness sit with us.

Sources Biography of Claude Monet Caricature information caricatures.html caricatures.html Image of the Water Lilies Bridge and Water Lilies r-Lilies-and-Japanese-Bridge-% %29-Monet.jpg r-Lilies-and-Japanese-Bridge-% %29-Monet.jpg Monet_038.jpg Monet_038.jpg