Impressionism is not only an important Art Movement to learn about, it introduces a new way of perception. Rendering impressionistic style loosens the artist into breaking up those intimidating, solid, defining lines. Sometimes students will focus on how their drawing is, "bad" because the basic contours are wrong, and it doesn't resemble what they are trying to illustrate. The student becomes frustrated and discouraged. This is why I chose to do Van Gogh's Starry Night.I opened with a brief dialogue about why Impressionism started as an Art Movement, and what exactly it means to paint, "impressionistically". Telling them that artists of this movement felt the desire to meticulously study light and color - realizing that there are many colors that compose one area of a painting. Before this time period, art was based on historical figures, portraits, very realistically painted - usually commissioned for someone with money. These new emerging artists were seen as deviants, and of course were frowned upon by the "Academy". (Really, these people were just frightened at the thought of something new, something uncomfortable).
I introduced concept words like strokes, contour, weight of line, repetition. I explained that many impressionists also focused on movement, energy flow, changing forms...I then asked the classes where they could find that description. The best answer was, "the sky looks like a giant wave", which was a beautiful parallel to the energy and movement of the sky.
I took them through a couple of steps to get some main lines on the paper, dividing the space apart in which they will add their strokes. It was pleasing to see such differentiation between each student as you'd think a "stroke" would essentially look the same for everyone...Some drawings are in the works! So stay posted if you want to see the final versions.
