My Impression of the Sunrise is...

This is the painting that caused the term impressionism to be widely used. It shows recognizable images, but it is obviously painted. The painter was using his brushstrokes to portray his impression of the sunrise over the water. We see loosely defined boats silhouetted in the foreground and background. It was not the first impressionist painting, but since Monet used the term Impression in the title of his work, reporters began to use the term impressionism to describe this style of painting which they thought was "unfinished". It was not initially thought to be a positive thing by the public. Today it is a very popular style of art.

Impression Sunrise by Claude Monet, 1972 , Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris

The Middle School art class's assignment was inspired by this and other similar impressionist paintings. We began with the primary and secondary colors plus white on our palette. We used the rule of thirds and began painting a circle using either yellow or orange to represent the sun. Gradually each student continued painting circles,then ovals moving outwards following the color wheel. Colors went from yellow to orange, red, violet, then blue. We added some white to each color to make the colors more opaque(less see through). Some students only used 3 analogous colors, while some used them all. Some students used pastel colors while some used vivid hues. Students could choose whether they wanted to paint with their canvas horizontally or vertically. This first example is vertical, but the one following it is horizonal.

The next step was to repaint the whole surface using horizontal strokes until the whole surface is covered with paint leaving the texture of the strokes. Tiny globs of paint are okay, it adds to the painting.

The next step is to sketch some silhouettes that you think you would like to use in your painting. This was our homework. Next week we will add the silhouettes to our paintings.

We will use a dark gray to black color to add silhouettes to the paintings. A large silhouette of an object in the foreground and a reduced sized object in the background. And voila, your very own Impressionist Sunrise painting.

Back to the Future

Futurism is a style of art that began in the early 1900's. It often resembles cubism. The key to futurist art is that it deals with the future often showing movement, mechanical items, and powerful things.  Below is a picture with a cubist feel that portrays a horse in motion. Below that is a picture of a dog being walked.

" Elasticity (Elasticità), oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, Museo del Novecento" by Umberto Boccioni 

Giacomo Balla, 1912, Dinamismo di un Cane al Guinzaglio (Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash), Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Our class began our own movement art inspired by futurism. Here is a link to view several examples of our assignment. 

Website with Assignment Examples

We traced our mannequin with pencil, then traced it with watercolor pencils and colored pencils. The last step is to use a damp brush to "paint" areas to enhance the motion.