Art
Find out about the artists behind the bright colours of impressionism,
from Claude Monet to Berthe Morisot. Watch this short introduction.
Source: Tate Modern (London) for kids.
A brief history of impressionism
Materials you will need:
Acrylic Paint (a set of different primary colors)
Watercolor paper or cardstock
A sponge
Option #1: Pond of Water Lilies
Directions:
To prep, lay down some newspaper over your table. Next, dip the sponge into blue paint.
Pull the sponge from the top of the page all the way down the page, making long vertical streaks.
Next, add green to the sponge and make streaks vertically and randomly around the edges of the paper.
Add more strikes to the paper in white and then in a light shade of purple. Streak them on randomly around the painting.
Use a thin brush for the next step. To add the water lilies, just paint ovals all around the painting, gathering them together in spots. Use yellow, red, pink, white, light blue, and light green for the water lilies. You can layer the ovals with one or two more colors to finish them off.
And here's the final outcome...
Option #2: Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies.
Directions
We must work this one in segments. Draw a horizontal line through the center of the paper and then divide the upper portion in half.
In the upper right corner, you can stamp on a combination of green, yellow, blue and a small bit of red, but you can also, of course, select your own mixture of colors...
In the upper left corner, streak on the colors using vertical strokes of the sponge.
Use blue, green and white to paint the bottom section. The bottom section will be the pond. This is again streaked on with a sponge vertically. At the very bottom, make a horizontal strip of blue and a strip of red above it.
Use the sponge and streak on grass on the side and a plant in the center of the painting.
When you finish sponging, switch over to a brush and paint short white lines all over the pond to represent the water lilies. Layer the white lines with pink or red paint.
Lastly, paint the bridge and voilá… a pretty Monet inspired masterpiece.
Option #3: Monet Style Sunset.
Materials you will need:
Color felt tips or markers (optional)
Crayons (optional)
Crayons (optional)
Paper or cardstock
The process is very simple...
Draw a horizon line using a ruler. Then add the sun.
Try to imitate the “dab” style of painting and emphasize the strokes with the crayons making them heavy and thick.
Use a variety of cold color tones like purple, dark blues, greens or mixed contrasting colors to show shadow and dark spaces.
Use hot colors around the sun such as oranges and yellows to contrast with the cold ones.
Here's another similar sample...
