Monet- the master of lilies and impressionism who went from a grocer to an impressionist

Who was Claude Monet?

Claude Monet was an impressionist from the 1800’s who enjoyed painting the everyday. He grew up in Paris, France, living to almost 90 years old. His experience growing up as a teen on the water and helping with shipments, he often painted boats and water scenes. Later he painted the everyday pleasures of the middle class he saw including beaches, ladies, boats, living. Many nature motifs define his impressionist style.

He married a woman, lots of chaos ensued and he often struggled with depression. Claude moved a lot and had many debts. He was a grocer and your everyday man, but later inspired by art and water, painted

Art Activity – Lilies/Flower Garden

Courtesy of: Artsy Craftsy Mom

Materials:

• Plastic flowers (fresh worked better)
• Paint
• Heavy plain paper or cardstock
• Ruler that can get paint on it
• Newspaper (to avoid messes)
• Paper plates/trays for paint

Process:

• Gather various flowers (fresh or plastic) we used lilies/groups of leafy flowers etc.
• Dip flower evenly in paint tray
• Press gently to paper until outline shows (it may be blurry)
• Continue with various colors
• Let dry for a minute or two
• Place a strip of paint vertically on left or ride side of paper
• Take ruler edge (metal sharper edge worked best), line it up and “sweep” across page
• The color should go behind the flower imprints/colors
• Done! Let dry.

Results:

Overall, I would say this activity is not perfect but it’s fun and messy. All three enjoyed it. My eldest was a little upset that it didn’t look “right” but I told him art isn’t about perfection, it’s about impressions and expressions. He struggled to get a steady sweep with the paint but eventually got it.

The middle son tried many flowers until it became almost like a swirl of colors, not really flowers. But he enjoyed the messy aspect of the activity and found it interesting to see the different “impressions” and “tracings” of the flowers outlining in paint. He agreed fresh worked better and absorbed more thoroughly. Fresh flowers were scarce when we did this since it was almost winter time. However, it still worked.

The youngest (9 years old) seemed most in tune with this concept. He did the yellow and blue. Saying two colors worked best and a gentle smooth scrape across the page created a better background.

I’m thinking we will try this art activity again with more fresh flowers and more time to patiently press and scrape to get a lily and water like look.