NATURAL IMPRESSIONISM – THE EUROPEANS

Impressionism emerged in the mid 18th century in France. Impressionist painters were known for scenes from everyday life and landscapes using natural light, asymmetric composition, rapid brushstrokes with high-keyed colors. In the videos, you will find I have focused on certain aspects of each of these artists as a lesson tool. Explore the painting processes, materials, and methods of your favorite artists as we move on.

The Tree of Impressionism

• Manet (a pivotal figure in the movement from Realism to Impressionism, first to paint modern life, was influenced by Courbet). 

Notes: Journaling and Still Life. The science and poetry the junctures at the place in the journal. 

• Journaling is for what it is, why it appears, intuitions, etc. A place for composing not just in a visual sketch but a word sketch that allows one to work from the inside out, developing one’s imagination. Paint still life which is a small intimate world for enhancing and developing brush skills since it enlarges your world; it’s a proving ground.

•  Sisley (Dedicated to landscapes en plein air, painted with Monet and Renoir. The painting surface to express one’s sensations.) He said the painting service is to express animation, which is the hardest part of painting.

  • Notes: We are to come to feel nature’s embrace and to transmit to the surface of the canvas one sensation of that moment. Let your brushstrokes move with vigor use your fingers, hand, forearm, full arm, and body; I call it my dancing brush –for full expression, directional brushstrokes. 

• Monet (Considered the founder of Impressionism, especially en Plein air landscapes, and was a master on the effects of light on color). 

  • Notes: Repetition – the importance of painting the same scene allows for study and experiences helping to have mastery over the subject, see the effects of light on the subject. Repetition also helps one find oneself in the subject; we are to linger there, to take up residence. The paintings will reveal how one has changed. Drawing strokes be mimicked in painting strokes. As much as you paint, you draw.  

• Pissarro (A Neo-Impressionist studied under Courbet and Corot was called the dean of the impressionist painters. He was a father figure and mentored the post-impressionists – Cezanne, Seurat, Gauguin, and van Gogh).

• Renoir (Noted for painting female figures and the beauty of daily life). 

Notes: Renoir believed a picture should be pleasant and pretty. I believe it should be beautiful, and he was, for beauty is transcendent; it demands a response. What does your invoice say about the work? To work is to be humble; to be humble is to paint still life. The unity of his work is because he was in love with his subject and the environment, which he explored lovingly.

• Morisot (One of the ‘grand dames’ of Impressionism who exhibited in the Salon and with the Impressionists, was friends of Corot and Manet). 

  • She captured the strength of the ephemeral through expressive brushwork with figures immersed within an environment capturing the fleeting glance of a scene. Her brushstrokes were fiery, accurate, and animated, for she drew with the brush sensation and expression beyond the representational.

• Degas (Though regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, he considered himself in the area of realism, working only indoor and studio, befriended Cassatt). 

  • Note: He looked to balance the structure and the experience of rapture to embrace the mystery with a simultaneously dynamic blend of both science and poetry. What is your balance?