Monet inspired art

       

The great thing about kids is that they typically take a liking or at least a small interest in what you do. I have recently taken up watercolors. It's something I tend to do late at night after the boys go to bed. (it's kind of taken a little time from the ol' blog) but the boys will typically see my work left to dry on the kitchen table. Bear has especially taken some interest in joining in . I decided to make a little lesson from it and talk about one of my favorite artist,Claude Monet. We used  the book The Magical Garden of Claude Monet
and talked about the textures and lines in the painting.And a very brief description on Impressionism.  We discussed how he was inspired my nature and light. How the same subject during different times of the day can have a different feel. 

After a few day we found an app with all of Monet's most famous painting and the boys picked out their favorite. After  reading the Magical Garden of Claude Monet I was not surprised  they chose the Japanese garden and bridge. We mixed a few paints trying to match colors they identified in the painting after that I let them run free with their work. We set them to dry and after hung them in their toy room. It's so cool to see them identify the artist whenever they pass by their work. This was such a fun study for all of us and I look forward to doing a few more with different artist throughout the summer. 

Key notes to discuss with you child 

• What do you see?
• Are the painting strokes soft of hard?
• If child is older discuss Impressionism in more detail (show other famous Impressionist artist Mary Cassatt is a great example since she was directly influenced by Monet) 
• What time of the day do you think this was painted based on the light
• do a day long nature study about light on subject. Have them paint or photograph the same subject and discuss the differences. 

** there are affiliates links in this post**