acrylic paintings inspired by Monet

On the second day of the Art and Nature summer camp, my plan was to have the campers go through their sketchbooks and pick one of their sketches from our hike through Lynn Canyon and use it to create an acrylic painting.

I decided to show them the work of Monet to inspire the painting style for their work of art for a couple of reasons.

One, there is an exhibition of his work currently on display at Vancouver Art Gallery and I thought it might be a nice entry point to encourage them to go and have a look at it.

And two, Monet loved to paint outdoors.

The match of Monet's style of painting and the artist work seemed like a perfect match. It was also a perfect day to be outside and so I asked the children if they would enjoy painting in my backyard instead of in the studio.....

since Monet liked to paint in his backyard.

A resounding YES meant we taped the acrylic paper down on the cardboard I save from old paper tablets, grabbed the paintbrushes and water jugs and the box of paint and headed outside.

Now let's be clear. My backyard doesn't hold a candle to Monet's yard.

Although I have a goldfish pond, mine is in a container and definitely does not have a bridge.

I do have a small water fountain though.

And while a couple of artist decided to create paintings of the woods,

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Most of them were quite inspired by my small water feature in the backyard.

They patiently waited to catch a glimpse of the three goldfish I have put in the pond and these fish made an appearance in several of the paintings.

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If you look closely, you'll see the white fish with the orange marking on it's head peaking out from this young boys' painted lily pad. Pretty much exactly what the fish does when you are looking for it in the pond.

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You'll also see the two orange fish along with a great rendition of the bamboo fountain in this boys' painting too!

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And then this endearing painting, where it seems my fish when night falls enjoys some flying acrobatics! This young artist had me at flying fish with this painting.

And then the waterlily paintings. I need to stress again that "my plan" was to have the kids paint forest scenes from their sketchbooks in my backyard. I had shown them Monet's work to inspire painting style along with hopefully exciting them to go take a look at his artwork in person.

NOT to paint waterlily scenes and yet something magical happened with the combination of my humble pond and looking at Monet's artwork.

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Because suddenly these beautiful water lily paintings were being created in my backyard as the kids congregated on a blanket around the pond.

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I think they all caught the essence of impressionist painting, my goal when I first introduced Monet. But what happened in my backyard that day came as a complete surprise to me as children began to bring me their finished works of art as we packed up to head back into the studio.

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I did have one young boy who had grander ideas about the best way to spend a beautiful Vancouver summer day other than in my backyard. I have to agree a day at spent on the shores of the Pacific Ocean would be marvelous.

But until then, I am quite content with the day I spent with these talented young artist sitting in my backyard painting.

A morning full of color

This morning I ran a workshop for the North Vancouver Community Arts Council focusing on chalk pastel works inspired by Monet.

After looking at some of Monet's work and going over the technique of optical blending, 9 students between the ages of 5 and 10 embarked on their own impressionistic landscapes in chalk pastels.

Halfway through the two hour class and most students were sporting colorful beards, mustache faces and clothing had taken on a very rainbow hue.  Thank goodness it washes out!

It was at about this point that a reporter from the North Shore News showed up to see just what was happening in class.  An unexpected surprise that left the kids all thrilled because who doesn't like the idea of being in the newspaper?!

So it will be fun to see their work and their very colorful faces beaming from the pages of our neighborhood paper sometime soon.

Until then, here's a look at what these talented students created today.  I've included the reference so you can see just how each child interpreted the visuals.

Here is how a 9 year old handled a Koi pond garden

And how incredible is this 5 year old drawing!  I could not believe how well she understood the concept and her visual interpretation of the reference she chose was quite impressive too.

This 8 year old boy came to class feeling a little less than confident in his art skills.  A sport fanatic who in the end excelled just as wonderfully with his art as he does on the hockey rink or football field.  I think he had a great time "crashing" the waves into the glacier too...kind of like crashing into the boards with hockey. 

It was interesting to watch this 6 year old work through the challenges of the reference picture he picked.  I loved seeing all the changes he mades as the time went on and thought he came up with a beautiful picture.

By the end of the class, this 9 year old looked more like the Incredible Hulk at pick up than the boy his father dropped off in the morning for class.  There was no doubt when looking at him what picture he had completed!

And what a lot of work this 9 year old put into her piece!  She went over the chalk a lot of times getting this just right.  Lovely in the end for sure.

I love how the water really seems to glow in this work created by a 10 year old.  What a challenge working with all that dark!

This enthusiastic 9 year old was a little late getting to class so had to jump right into the artwork without the benefit of going over Monet's work and technique but it didn't seem to hurt him at all.  He caught on very quickly to the concept and was off to the races without a lot of direction on my part.  He was so happy with his work when finished.

And finally this 9 year old who created this artwork without use of reference.  I think she used a bit of everything she saw on the table around her.  I love the way she came up with her own technique for an inspired impressionistic piece.

So although a little more colorful at pick up than when they were dropped off, I said goodbye to a group of very proud children at the end of class.  As you can see, they had every reason to feel that way.

Monet visits summer camp

Today I was invited to teach at Seymour Art Gallery during a week long camp they were holding.  Over the past five days, they had different instructors share their talents with the students and I was so lucky to come on the last day because I got to see all the spectacular work that has been created!

They even had an art show at the end with refreshments!

First the curator at the gallery gave a short talk on Monet and presented three different artworks for them to discuss.   I think the kids found it interesting that Impressionism was once revolutionary.  I think they found it even more interesting that during the time Monet was painting was the first time paint was offered in tubes which opened up the door for artist to really go outside to paint.

And so once the curator handed the day over to me, we talked quickly about what the students noticed about Monet's paint style and then we went off to do artwork inspired by the man of the hour himself, Monet. Then like Monet, we headed outside to paint.

It's hard not to be inspired when this is the view right outside the gallery.

I mean like ten steps outside the gallery!!!

It doesn't get much more inspirational than this view.  Monet would of been envious even.

Deep Cove, outside of Seymour Art Gallery, British Columbia

Don't you feel sorry for these children?  Forced to go outside and paint this?

Actually it had the potential to be quite overwhelming, but I told them as artist they got to pick and choose what they liked from the scenery.  That by no means, should they try to draw EVERYTHING!

We did some sketching with pencil and I instructed them to work on composition and shape, not detail.  They would put that in when they started painting.  I think between worrying only about shape and having the knowledge they could pick and choose what they wanted to include made them much more comfortable.

And here's the results, inspired by Monet and the beautiful scenery at Seymour Art Gallery

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I love the clouds and the kayakers this artist chose to include in her painting.

Another student focused on this large tree in the park.  I think unknowingly she was channeling not only Monet, but also Van Gogh.  What do you think?

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Not only were there kayakers, but also sailboats.  Oh yes, feel very sorry for the ugly scenery these students had to endure on an absolutely gorgeous morning in Deep Cove.

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So here's where I'm thrilled to see a student really understand "artist interpretation".  Below is one of the kayakers that we all found so inspiring and then her interpretation of that kayaker.  I love that she added a rowing crew in her painting inspired by the kayaker.  

We were outside mid morning and the sun was making the most beautiful reflections on the water.  When the students were looking at the different boats moving through it, I had them pay particular attention to what the water was doing behind the boats and in the above painting, and all the paintings with boats, you can see how the artist chose to capture that movement and light behind the boats.

The mountains in the distance were a beautiful shade of blue.  A blue this student below captured quite lovely in her work.  How awesome is that sailboat in the water? If that doesn't say impressionism, I don't know what does!!  And there's that water trail again.

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One last beautiful artwork inspired by Monet and the view outside in Deep Cove.  You want to move here now, don't you?

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Finally, I am quite frustrated with myself.  Somehow I overlooked one artist at the end of the day and did not capture an image of her final work.  I was so proud of her because her sketch was quite complicated.  She had the playground, the marina, the street light, all the mountains and trees..basically the entire first photograph in this post.  I knew I had to get her to edit down her idea and I asked her what the favorite part of her drawing happened to be.  She pointed to the "drooping" tree and the park bench she had drawn.  

(see photo above, if you know what kind of tree that is please let me know otherwise it is the "drooping tree" I thought it was a willow but the branches are so short.)

So I showed her how to crop into her picture and asked her to draw it again.  She did a wonderful job, but I'm not going to lie, I don't think she was completely sold on the new composition but I asked her to trust me and that she would be glad she made the edit when she started painting.

She was glad and her artwork was wonderful.  I'm just so sorry I don't have it to show you because I was so proud of her knowing the work she put into her original sketch and the trust she put in me when I asked her to edit the sketch and simplify.

All in all, it was a very fun day. How could it not be with a location like this on a sunny morning?  At the end when I asked if they liked painting in the style of the Impressionist, the response was a resounding, "YES!"

It doesn't get much better than that.

A quick reminder that fall classes and should school not start on time due to the strike, a full day camp until it opens, are on the website at Kudzustudio.com.