![]() About three hundred of his paintings are of his floral and water gardens. He complained, “It’s a continual torture to me!” Monet worked on a continuous series of water lily paintings from the late 1890s to 1910. Monet would work on a painting for half an hour and as the light changed, he’d switch out the canvas he was working on for another, frantically trying to find the one that best matched what he was currently seeing. He even paid to blacktop the road that crossed his property because he didn’t like the dust that settled on his plants. He pruned dead water lily blossoms and even went so far as to trim the pads. He orchestrated color and plant arrangement (including irises and weeping willows) around the edge of his pond for the best reflections. He also got permission to control the incoming water flow, creating the right conditions to grow a new hybrid water lily that would be hardy enough for the French climate. He built an arched bridge based on Japanese designs across one section of the pond. ![]() An inspired gardener and a perfectionist, Monet designed his garden like he was changing the costume on a model or arranging a still-life-to look exactly as he wanted to paint it. They are beyond the power of an old man, and I nevertheless want to succeed in rendering what I perceive…,” said Monet of his garden at Giverny, where he painted many versions of the The Water Lily Pond. ![]() “These landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession. In 1883, Monet, his second wife Alice Hoschede, and her eight kids moved to Giverny, a town about an hour outside Paris where he lived the rest of his life. As the public opinion of Impressionism became more favorable in the mid-1880s, Monet’s paintings began to sell well and by the turn of the century, he was one of the world’s wealthiest artists. He wanted to depict the feeling or sensation of a scene, rather than the individual objects that existed within the composition. With his paintings, Monet strove to capture a fleeting moment by rendering the nuances of light and color in nature. He most often chose to paint landscapes and leisure activities-everyday activities that were considered to be unworthy subjects for art, compared to the highly respected religious and mythological subjects. Like many other Impressionists, Monet had little success in his early years. That label-derived from Monet’s painting, Impression, Sunrise of 1874-stuck, and the group of artists became known as the “Impressionists.” Impressionists were initially criticized for their unworthy subjects, unrealistic colors, garish color combinations, and loose, seemingly unfinished brushwork. These young artists had so much trouble getting their work exhibited that they created their own independent exhibition, which yielded only ridicule and a sarcastic label. In the 1860s, Monet joined a group of young artists who began to challenge the rules for how good paintings were made. Plein- air is French for “open air” and refers to paintings created outdoors. With a local reputation as a caricaturist, he attracted the interest of landscape painter Eugene Boudin, who introduced Monet to plein-air painting. His father was a wholesale grocer, and after his mother died when he was 17, an aunt encouraged Monet in his efforts to become an artist. The most widely known French Impressionist, Claude Monet was born in Paris and grew up on the Normandy coast. Continue until everyone has jumped across the lily pads. Stop the music occasionally and let the students have fun freezing on different lily pads. Call on students who aren’t on a lily pad when the music stops, and ask them to name a color from Monet’s painting. Tell them that when the music stops, they should stop and freeze. Play some lively music and invite students to jump across the lily pads. Have the students help you lay out the lily pads in the same arrangement as the lily pads in Monet’s painting. Lay the green lily pad shapes that you have cut out on the floor.Explain to the students that they will be playing a garden game with lily pads.Which one of Monet’s lily pads would they like to take a nap on? Which lily pad would they like to have a party on? Read a book? Where else in the painting would they like to do these activities? ![]() Ask the students to imagine they are an insect or a frog.Sing and enact flower songs of your choosing found at A to Z Kids Stuff.Read Planting a Rainbowby Lois Ehlert to the class.What kinds of things grow in the gardens? What kinds of insects and creatures have they observed? What colors do they see in gardens? Ask them if they have gardens at home or have ever been to a garden.Begin by showing students Monet’s painting The Water Lily Pond.
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