Art Inspired By The Impressionists is always one of the after school clubs the kids are most interested in, and a quick look at this page will show anyone why...the participants create beautiful paintings!

After a brief intoduction to the Impressionist painters and their work, the kids begin by practicing one of the key elements to painting in this style--brushstrokes. Taking a print and trying to emulate it using only white paint on black construction paper gets them into the habit of using many small brushstrokes as the Impressionist painters did. These beginning works are finished off with pastels for some color.

Using either the same print or another one, the kids move on to canvas boards, first to sketch out the basic shapes of the painting, then to begin painting--first the big areas of the basic colors, then to add all the many little brushstrokes of different colors to create that illusion of detail and light working that made an Impressionist painting.

One of the hardest parts of the process, but also one of the most fun, is making all the colors to be used! Every color in these paintings is mixed from red, yellow, blue, magenta, and turquoise blue paints, plus white. As you can see from the paint table, many beautiful colors are created, and once used in a painting, saved for others who may be looking for just that color for their own painting!

We have a somewhat unique opportunity to watch the finishing touches being put on one painting, Rebecca L.'s The Orchard by Monet. You can see how the very few additions made create a much greater sense of depth and detail:[click on the thumbnail picture for a bigger picture]

And so, after much work, the painters end up with one, and in most cases two, beautiful paintings to bring home and exhibit proudly in their homes.

This fall's group was a particularly good one, choosing a wide variety of works by Monet and Van Gogh, as well as a few other artists, and doing an amazing job in turing them into their own paintings, as you will see below!

Frankie C. Monet's Boats at Argenteuil	Frankie C. Monet's La Porte d'Amont, Etretat
Elizabeth E. Monet's The Thames	Amy O. Monet's Houses of Parliament, London
Angelo M. Van Gogh's The Harvest	Angelo M. Van Gogh's Boats at St. Mary's
Courtney A. Monet's Bridge Over a Pool of Water Lilies	Rebecca L. Monet's Bridge Over a Pool of Water Lilies
Courtney A. another of Monet's many Water Lily paintings	Chrissy C. Matisse's Promenade Among the Olive trees not strictly an Impressionist painter, hence the use of black paint as well, which the Impressionists did not use...
Kelly P. Monet's Poplars	Kelly P. Sisley's The Banks of the Oise
Brianna G. Van Gogh's Starry Night	Brianna G. Van Gogh Fritillaires Couronne Imperiale dans un Vase de Cuivre (Crown Imperial Fritillaries in a Copper Vase)
Kalynn V. Bierstadt's In the Mountains	Anushka G. Renoir's Girl with Straw Hat

Bill W.
Robinson's Low Tide, Riverside Yacht Club
also known as the endlessly unfinished painting!