Oil Painting Water Lilies; by Claude Monet ( ) French Impressionist. This is one of the approximately 250 paintings in the series.

Paint ingredients Pigment is a finely ground powder that gives paint its color. Pigments come from minerals such as azurite, cobalt, zinc, titanium, etc. Binder is a liquid to which the dry pigment is added. The binder makes it possible for the pigment to stick to the surface. Linseed oil is a binder for oil paints. (Gum Arabic is a binder for watercolors.) It gives paints its luminosity. Pigments ground in linseed oil have a particular depth and resonance of color because of the amount of light the oil reflects and absorbs. Solvent is a liquid that controls the thickness of the paint. Turpentine is a solvent for oil paints. (Water is the solvent for watercolor.) Solvents are also used to clean the brushes.

Characteristics of Oil Paint Advantages of oil paint: Oil paints create a significant depth on the painting surface. Oil paints remain workable for a long time because they dry very slowly. Mistakes can be corrected very easy with applying another layer of paint over the previous layer. Disadvantages of oil paints: Different colors dry at different speeds. Paintings can crack if the paint is applied improperly. Usually every new layer requires more oil because the previous layer of paints will absorb oil from the top layer.

Modern commercial paints are sold in tubes. The tube was invented in Paint in tubes also changed the way some artists approached painting. The Impressionist artist Pierre- Auguste Renoir said “Without tubes of paint, there would have been no Impressionism.” For the Impressionists, tubed paints offered an easily accessible variety of colors for their “plein air” palettes, motivating them to make spontaneous color choices. With greater quantities of preserved paint, they were able to apply paint more thickly.

Impressionism in Painting Exploration of light and technique in actual outdoor settings. – New pigment methods. Group of like-minded artists in Paris Reflects middle class Most popular movement today (but not back then.)

Characteristics of Impressionism Impressionist artists tried to depict what they saw at given moment. They often painted outdoors. They choose ordinary scenes as a subject matter. Simple composition; no details. Broken brushstrokes ========= to achieve loose, dense texture. Applied paint in small dabs.======to capture flickering quality of sunlight and reflections on water. Bright, unmixed colors. (Colors are supposed to mix in viewer’s eyes.) Avoided earthy or black colors; rejected somber tones. Used complementary colors for shadows and dark tones. Put one color on the top of another (layering). ======= to blur contours and soften the edges. While layering - used the principle “fat on lean” which means the first layer is thinned with linseed oil and each following layer has less and less oil or almost no oil at all. The last layer looks like a paste (impasto style.)

Claude MonetImpression: Sunrise

Claude Monet: Rouen Cathedral; Full Sunlight.

Japanese Bridge at Giverny; by Claude Monet

Mary Cassatt ( ) American Impressionist artist.