the Mystery of Monet

Mitchell Albala is an inspiring art instructor in the field of landscape painting, and it turns out he’s an awesome detective as well. Recently, he did some sleuthing on a rare video clip of Monet in the act of painting—incredible!—and shared his findings with us. Who needs Sherlock?!

If there were any artist, past or present, into whose studio I could magically transport myself and observe him paint, it would be Claude Monet. I have always been intrigued by his painting style, especially the highly textured and complex surfaces of his landscape paintings.

When I discovered a short video of him painting in his gardens at Giverny I was thrilled. Yes, the video is short, in black and white, and you can barely see the surface of his painting or much of his palette. Yet, this is the only such record of him painting I have ever seen, so I thought it would be interesting to play studio detective and see what I might learn if I studied the film in detail.

1:05 – Fierce observation

As a landscape artist, I naturally expected Monet to observe his subject. Yet, the constancy with which he observes is astonishing. Except for the time he takes to clean his brush, he turns to his subject every two or three seconds.

1:37 – Strokes of broken color

Monet and the other Impressionists abandoned the approach of blending colors over large areas in favor of placing individual strokes side by side, and allowing the eye to mix those spots of color at a distance. Here we witness the action that produces these daubs and dashes of “broken color.” At certain moments, the strokes are fairly short “dashes.” Other times he makes longer vertical strokes (1:09). There is no blending or rubbing, just one thrust of the brush. He holds the brush fairly far back along the shaft and extends his arm, reaching to the canvas. After just a few strokes, he returns to the palette for more color.

1:18 – Brushes

Monet pauses for a fraction of a second to choose his brush. Monet thinking—caught on film! He uses four brushes. They appear to be the same size, so almost certainly the various brushes were assigned different colors.

One brush also appears to be unusual—quite pointy with the bristles forming a triangular shape. Perhaps it was a brush he had custom made or it was a regular brush that had worn down.

1:25 – Palette and mixing

Here we get a glimpse of the artist’s palette. Given how “loaded” with paint the surface of his paintings were, I was a little surprised not to see larger daubs of pigment squeezed out on Monet’s palette.

Stance and orientation: When painting outdoors (or with any subject, for that matter) it is often recommended that you put your subject as close to your line of sight as possible. This reduces the amount of head turning necessary. Here, though, Monet is turning a full 90 degrees to the right to view his subject. This was likely because of the size of the canvas. Had he propped it up in front of himself, it would have blocked his view.

The premier Impressionist, Monet was a keen observer but also embraced with confidence the method of simply painting the way he saw (cataracts and all!). For more insightful observations and worthwhile lessons in the arena of landscape painting so that you gain that same confidence and joy of the natural world around you, consider The Luminous Landscape in Oil with Brian Keeler Video Download. It’s an inspiring and unique resource, so enjoy!

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• Bring Together the Outdoors and Indoors In Your Landscape Paintings
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• 6 Tips for Color Mixing
• The Romance Is Overrated
• New Free eBook on the Color Wheel and Color Schemes!

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Reportage from Paris and Monet’s home in Giverny, France.

• Mark Higden I am an illustrator sketching reportage of fashion from NYC streets & a professor at FIT in Fashion Business Management

. Monet’s famous bridge over his lily ponds - featured in many of his paintings. I took the liberty in my illustration to include both of us together. Recently, I visited Claude Monet’s home in Giverny, France, located about an hour by train ouside of Paris. Monet lived here from 1883 until his death in 1926. During my visit, I was able to see his beautiful flower garden named Clos Normand - the name translated literally means “walled garden.” Also, I explored the water garden that he built and planted hundreds of water-lily plants in. Both of these locations at his home served as inspiration for many of his paintings. Monet was one of the founders of the Impressionism art movement that reflected the artist’s perception of

nature and light in their paintings. He was considered by many in the art world of his time, to be a master of working with color through the range of hues that he worked with. Often, Monet painted plein aire, or outside on location, with some of his artist friends that included: Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Frederic Bazille and Camille Pissaro and Paul Cezanne.

A view of Monet’s Clos Normand and his pale pink home. Many flowers were in full bloom for my visit including: Oriental Poppys, Hollyhocks, Clematis, and Digitalis. There were so many flowers that I could not identify all of them.

Monet’s pond with water-lily plants were blooming with pale pink flowers.

This video features a collection of Claude Monet famous paintings. We hope you enjoy the slideshow compilation. For art reproductions of Claude Monet paintings, please visit our website at the url below.

.This is a basic, bite size tutorial highlighting the techniques used by Monet when painting. This is only intended as a rough guide. Our practical art history workshops are much more in depth. It highlights the basic skills taught in our art appreciation workshops held at The Artery in Banbury. 1-21 tuition is also

A step by step acrylic lesson on painting ponds and water lilies, using reflections and the layering of water lilies to create depth. 'Acrylic paint allows the artist to do fast multiple layers of paint, in a very short period of time. The unique techniques shown in this instructional video, are some of the great painting