Painting 'en plein air'

Discover Monet’s love of painting outside (en plein air) and experience this by painting an outdoor scene in Impressionist style. Evaluate the resulting paintings considering their use of light and colour to create an “impression.”

Teaching Outcomes:

• To understand and explore how Claude Monet used light and colour to create impressions of outdoor scenes, painting “en plein air”.

Children will:

• Understand the importance of light and colour in Monet’s paintings and why he loved to paint “en plein air”
• Paint a scene in impressionist style using a variety of taught techniques to help them.
• Evaluate their work and that of others by considering how successfully the paintings have used light and colour to create an impression.

• River art presentation

• Good quality art paper
• Clipboards or mini whiteboards and bulldog clips
• A packet of wet wipes
• Dimple pallets and acrylic paints
• Water pots
• Several 4 pint (clean) milk containers full of water
• Clear document sleeves
• 6 -8 clear document sleeves mounted on a rectangular view finder
• Strong carrier bags
• A mat per child

David Dunlop visiting Monet’s garden and painting a picture in impressionist style from YouTube.com