Because Nothings says Fall like Monet's Lily Pads...

Okay, so they don't scream "AUTUMN!" but I love Monet's work.  I became a fan of the Impressionist painters when I was in Jr. High, and never quite shook it.  This week, the girls and I made our own versions of Claude Monet's Water Lily Series, with the Japapese footbridge.  I loved the concept of using painter's tape to create the clean lines of the bridge.

                                     

Here's the website, Runde's Room, I found the tutorial on (actually found on Pinterest!) ;)

First we used painter's tape to make the bridge.  Using small pieces, we could make the curve more easily.

Lucia was eager to get painting! :)

 And so, we began by making dabs of paint on the bottom, focusing on the dark blues and greens of
the water.  We then painted right over the painter's tape, filling in everything that was white.

 Once we made our way to the bridge, we began incorporating more of the greens and yellows, to represent the sunlight coming through the trees.

We let them dry overnight, and then carefully peeled off the tape.  It's a gentle process, since we had the paper begin to rip in some spots.  Gingerly, we got all the tape off.  Then, we added a little more green to the bottoms of our paintings, for the lily pads.  We were impatient, so we dried those with the hair dryer. ;)

Then we took small brushes, and dabbed on our lilies.  

A word to the wise... be careful about making changes to the painting after the tape has been removed.... Eva had a little episode with her green and the bridge.  I think we fixed it with some white paint.

I'm loving how they turned out! :)

So, while they don't necessarily shout "fall craft!"  I'm so glad we did this project.  The girls were able to take in a ton of Monet's works, and increased in their appreciation of what processes and techniques he used to make the lovely art he did.  Works for me!

This is a video of a number of works of lily pads that Monet created.  There's also a few photos of him in his older age.  It was a great background to our work, and the girls actually wanted it on repeat, so they could draw inspiration from his paintings.

Water Lilies- Monet (6 minute video gallery)