Monet's Waterlilies

CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926)
WATERLILIES

Slideshare Presentation Here. This slideshow shows many examples of Monet's waterlily series. You may want to choose one to focus your discussion on initially, and then show them the rest of the slides.

Pronounced: Moe-nay
Art Style: Impressionism

Meet The Artist: Idea - Read the kids the Smart About Art book about Claude Monet (in art closet). 

Additional background info for you: here's a great link to a youtube video which is a quick overview of his life, about 4 minutes. Might not hold the attention of young kids but a great source of info if you are unfamiliar with Monet. Also here's another link to the wikipedia article about Monet, lots of great info in there for you.

Discussion Ideas: 

Show them the photographs of Monet's garden, Giverny (the first half of the slideshow), asking them to notice the plants and the pond. Then show the pictures of waterlilies that Monet painted (second half of the slideshow). As you get to the paintings, ask the discussion questions - (1) What's going on in this picture? (2) What makes you say that? (3) What more can you find?

You may want to bring out the following ideas: Impressionism was a style of art that attempted to capture nature in a single moment - a single impression. How do things change from moment to moment when you look at them? What are the things that create change in an image? (for example, light, weather, shadows…) Monet noticed how the same things looked totally different from morning, afternoon, night. He painted his beloved waterlilies over 250 times because he never tired of trying to capture them in all of the infinite varieties that light and season created for him.

Activity: There are a couple of fun waterlily projects. 

Option 1: 

Activity: Painting, cutting, gluing

Medium: tempera paint

Materials: blue/white/green/yellow/gold tempera paint, cardboard rounds, paper, a tiny amount of tissue paper,  bowls/cups for water, brushes, glue, scissors

1. Before you do the art history slideshow part, have the kids paint the cardboard round blue (this will be your pond). Depending on how adventurous you feel you could also give them white and green. Wiping the cardboard round down gently with a paper towel or baby wipe after they are done painting helps it to dry even quicker (my sample dried in about 5 minutes). 

2. After they paint the cardboard, have them paint a half sheet of paper with green (and maybe yellow) paint (they will cut lily pads out of this paper).

3. While these things are drying, discuss Monet (see discussion ideas above). 

4. When dry, have them cut lily pads from the green and glue them onto the pond. Use tiny bits of crumpled tissue paper to make flowers and glue them onto the lily pads. 

5. If you are feeling super ambitious and have time, they can paint a gold frame around the edge of the cardboard round.

Option 2:

Activity: Drawing and Painting

Medium: Watercolor Pastel

Materials: Watercolor pastels, watercolor paper, bowls/cups for water, brushes

I had the kids fill their whole page with color using the watercolor pastels (the more complex their color combinations, the better) - this should look very abstract - and then with water and a brush, turn it into a wash (the pastels dissolve when you brush them with water. A wash basically looks like a blob of color where you can't really see brushstrokes or pastel strokes.)

After the pictures dry a little (maybe 3 minutes or so), have the kids layer in simple shapes of lily pads, and flowers. You may want to try using OIL pastels for this last part because they may show up better.

Variation for older kids: You can also have the kids use tissue paper to make the waterlilies on the wash, which would mean having the kids cut the waterlily shapes out and then use Elmer's glue to attach them on the paper. 

Student Work: