The Paint4Fun Group winter term of 2024 started in early January with an enthusiastic focus on the Impressionists. We looked at a famous artist each week. We started with Constable and Turner who were an inspiration to Impressionists and who are seen as pioneers of Modern Art. Interestingly we discovered that both artists died some 20 years before Impressionism emerged.
Constable and Turner used broad brush strokes and rough (almost violent) movement of paint. They added energy and emotion using vibrant colour. They were the first artists to paint ‘en plein air,’ taking their paints, easels and equipment outside. Before this only drawing and watercolour were used out of doors. Here are some of my paintings below which were copied from Impressionists’ famous works using their brushwork techniques and using a similar palette wherever possible.
The group then studied Pissarro, then Renoir and finally Van Gogh. We discovered that working outdoors (without the benefit of a camera!) there was not much time to capture fleeting moments of reality before it passed before the Impressionists’ eyes. They focused on the effects of natural light upon the landscape and sought to make an impression of the scene in front of them rather than seeking realism.
Impressionists usually painted using limited palette of vibrant, bright clear colours and they avoided browns, black and muted muddy colours. The group enjoyed copying some of each artists’ best known paintings using techniques such as choppy short brush strokes and vibrant colours.
All in all this was a most interesting and enjoyable term. As much as anything we enjoyed researching the artists’ works and lives and learning about them. We were especially moved to learn about the life of Vincent Van Gogh. He was such a troubled genius who died by his own hand at just 37 years old having sold just one painting during his lifetime. Amazing when you think how extraordinarily famous Van Gogh is today. I believer that one of his many paintings of Sunflowers sold for the highest price for a painting ever!
The group learned much from examining the techniques of these great artists and hopefully we all will take some aspects of Impressionism away to use in our own work.