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 by Nolan Clark Introduction Before we can start painting impressionistic paintings, we first need to understand what impressionism is and where it originated from. To do this we need to travel back in time to the late nineteenth century. Here we are going to discover many artists who we now regard as masters, but who where at the time shunned as revolutionaries. These include Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley. Definition Let's take a look at the definition of Impressionism. The dictionary defines Impressionism : art style that gives a general effect or mood rather than form or structure. From an artists point of view : the impressionistic style of painting is characterized by a concentration on the general impression produced by a scene or object and the use of unmixed primary colours and small strokes to simulate actual reflected light. Those are pretty deep words, but what do they mean? The three main points to remember are : 1) Creating a general impression of what you are painting ie. You are leaving out the fine detail and letting the viewers mind add it in. 2) You are using unmixed primary colours. Now this is one part of impressionistic painting that I have found few artists adhere to, but this technique led to the founding of another style called pointillism. 3) The third characteristic is the use of small strokes. When we start painting we will see that this is probably the most defining characteristic of impressionism. History Let's jump back in time to the 1860's. Think of Napoleon III and imagine how he dressed, then you can picture how stiff and aristocratic the way of life used to be. At this time there was a very regimented "official" style of art that the artists practised. When Monet, Sisley, Renoir and a few others started painting their "break-away" style of painting, there was such an uproar that their paintings were refused into the main galleries and exhibits. To a professional artist that means no income. Many artists however where so outraged by this that Napoleon III allowed them to open their own exhibit. The public didn't understand their works initially, but by 1876 they started to enjoy and purchase their works. This was roughly 16 years after the movement was started. By this time most impressionists had had enough, which is understandable, they needed to sell paintings to live. Ironically only Monet and Sisley persisted with the impressionistic style, remaining almost flat broke until their last years. When Pissarro died in 1903 everybody agreed that impressionism was the main 19th century artistic revolution and thanks to Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Pissarro impressionism is still popular today. If you enjoyed this tutorial, please don't forget to sign our guestbook. If you would like to ask us any questions on the basics of painting, you can post them HERE. We will be delighted to answer them.
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