Little Artists Paint Like Monet!

This week our little artists painted Monet's Japanese footbridge.

We first examined a few versions of this painting and learned that Monet painted the bridge many times. He was an impressionist so capturing light and color were most important to him. He painted the bridge in the morning, in full sunlight, and at sunset. He painted it during different seasons.



I taped a piece of watercolor paper to each board ahead of time. Then the children drew their bridges using at least two or three blues and greens and pressing the oil pastels hard.

They then drew in their waterlilies beneath the bridge using green and any other colors they wanted, again, pressing hard.

Finally, I quickly sponged other each piece with a wet sponge, and they added dabs of turquoise, blue, violet, and green. It was fun to watch the colors spread and to see the oil pastels resist and poke through the paint. 

We added course salt to the wet paint to add texture and sparkle to the water. We had to wait a bit for the salt to do its magic! 

Yup! That's right. Four- and five-year-olds can paint like Monet!