Film of Claude Monet painting waterlilies at Giverny

Below you can see a short film of the Impressionist painter Claude Monet at work on one of the paintings in his series of paintings of the nympheas (waterlilies) in the water garden at his home in Giverny in Normandy.



All plein air painters will wish to note:

• the white suit he is wearing - which has no marks from paint!  Monet is always wearing a suit when photographed while working.  We can only assume this is summer!
• the very large palette he is using
• the fact that the canvas is absolutely rock steady despite what is obviously a very blustery day.

Claude Monet (on right) in his garden in Giverny 
with an unidentified visitor in 1922
Source: Wikipedia

It's preceded by a very short film of him talking with a man in the Clos Normand (the flower garden) at Giverny.  If you study the background we can see that Monet was a cat person!

The general consensus is that Monet was probably filmed in the early twentieth century.  The colour of his beard suggests he's older than he was in the famous photograph of Monet by Nadar in 1899.  He looks more like the figure photographed in the water garden in 1922 (see photo on right).

Monet was an inveterate painter of gardens and always painted the gardens of the houses he lived in (see Making A Mark - Gardens in Art by Claude Monet for previous posts I've written on this topic).

The garden at Giverny is an example of Monet creating his very own place to paint - with a separate flower garden and water garden.

I came across the film (which was uploaded to YouTube by nickwallacesmith) on the Painting Perceptions blog.  This has a post with some useful observations about Monet's habits as a plein air painter.

Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick - Winter Landscapes #2

Hopewell, New Brunswick, 24×12 © 2009 Michelle Basic Hendry

From a painting near the USA Canadian border in Washington on the west coast to the another place near the USA / Canadian border - but this time on the East coast in New Brunswick, Canada.

This is the Bay of Fundy in January at the Hopewell Rocks.

This is one of Michelle Basic Hendry's favourite places in Canada any time of year.  She wrote

In a place that bustles in the summer, the silence and emptiness of the Bay of Fundy on the east coast of Canada in January gives the feeling of being the first to discover it. We were visiting on the New Brunswick side and the sun was setting behind the red cliffs tipping the trees with gold and lighting up the beach. This was my first trip to the east coast and between the landscapes and the gracious people, it is one of my favourite places in the world.
The Bay of Fundy was nominated for the New Seven Wonders of the World. 

Michelle has Michelle has lived most of her life in Ontario, but has just been on a major road trip and is currently embarking on a new adventure in Oklahoma.  I guess this is when we remember one of the other major pluses of landscape painting - the memories.

Michelle has been elected by her peers to become a member of the Society of Canadian Artists and the Landscape Artists International. I think might just be getting near to painting again after her big move.  You can read her blog here http://artscapes.ca/blog-home/

Links:  The Bay of Fundy

Remnant Snow - Winter Landscapes #1

Remnant by Casey Klahn
small pastel

This is a pastel painting of a remnant of snow by Casey Klahn (The Colorist).

Casey does fabulous landscapes in pastels and has been juried into exhibitions by the Pastel Society of America.

He also produces some of the most epic photographs of snow I see each winter (he lives in the north of Washington State near the border with Canada!).  Here's one from last year round about this time - which includes the route to his studio. he has to break in when the door freezes shut!

This artwork first appeared in this post Remnant - and came complete with musical accompaniment.

How to get your paintings of Winter posted on this blog
If you are

1. active in blogging about your art 
2. you're interested in having your images displayed as part of the seasonal changes. 

then all you have to do is

• drop me a line (see side column for email) with a brief explanation about your painting (if this is not already in your blog post), 
• identify and reference the URL of the blog post in which I can see the painting 
• and (this is important) use Readers Winter Landscapes in the subject line of your email (This is so I can find it in the masses I get each day!) 

Places to Paint: This blog features and shares good places for painters to paint. Please note that I'm also interested in the place as well as what led you to paint it in Winter. Tell me if and why other painters might be interested in this place.

I can't promise to display all that I'm told about. Plus there is an absolute rule which is that this is for art bloggers only ie "no blog post, no feature on my blog".


[Note - the count in the title only applies to the winter landscapes submitted by art bloggers]

Winter Landscapes by Ivan Shiskin

Winter (1890) by Ivan Shiskin
Oil on canvas, 125.5 x 204 cm
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg | Source: Wikimedia Commons

The great Russian landscape painter, Ivan Shiskin (1838-1892) very much liked painting trees and became famous for his forest landscapes.  These are a couple of his paintings of pine trees laden with snow in winter

I'm minded to try and develop an educational resource website about Shiskin over the course of the winter months.  I've not studied any Russian landscape artists yet although I have seen their paintings - some of which I like a lot.

Who are the artists which you think are great painters of winter landscapes?

Who else do you rate highly as a painter of trees?

Which Russian landscape painters do you like?

In the wild north (1891) by Ivan Shiskin
161 x 118 cm, oil on canvas
Kiev Museum of Ukranian Art, Kiev, Ukraine

Winter Landscapes

Street in Winter: sunlight and snow (1872) by Camille Pissaro

I'm about to start a series of  posts on this blog about Winter Landscapes.  This will be a mixture of artwork by famous artists and by art bloggers who read this blog.  Most will be paintings - but they can also be fine art prints or drawings.

Some will be full of snow and ice - but not everybody has snow and ice and sometimes that's a bit more of a challenge!  I'm interested in paintings which communicate about winter whichever part of the world you are in.

The painting above is by Camille Pissaro and captures three aspects which I find very characteristic of winter - the low piercing sunshine, trees without leaves - and the slush!

Pissaro's work is characterised as being Impressionist.  He was also influenced by two great French landscape painters Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.

How to get your paintings of Winter posted on this blog

If you are

1. active in blogging about your art
2. you're interested in having your images displayed as part of the seasonal changes. 

then all you have to do is

• drop me a line (see side column for email) with a brief explanation about your painting (if this is not already in your blog post), 
• identify and reference the URL of the blog post in which I can see the painting 
• and (this is important) use Readers Winter Landscapes in the subject line of your email (This is so I can find it in the masses I get each day!)

Places to Paint: This blog features and shares good places for painters to paint.  Please note that I'm also interested in the place as well as what led you to paint it in Winter.  Tell me if and why other painters might be interested in this place.

I can't promise to display all that I'm told about. Plus there is an absolute rule which is that this is for art bloggers only ie "no blog post, no feature on my blog".