Impressionist artists tried to capture the feeling of a quickly passing moment through light and color by painting small, quick brushstrokes. Impressionism was an art movement that started in Paris, France, during the 1800s. Impressionist artists broke the rules of traditional painting. They took their canvases outside to paint everyday scenes, including the natural world. How can you use dots and dabs of paint to create the impression of a field of flowers?
For this activity you will need:
- Black construction paper or cardstock (any color will work if you don’t have black)
- A paper plate or paint palette
- Q-tips
- Crayons or oil pastels
- Paint
To make your painting:
- Start at the bottom of your paper. Use crayons or oil pastels to draw stems of various lengths and thicknesses up from the bottom. Try overlapping your stems. You can also have them grow in different directions to create a sense of movement. You will need a lot of stems for all of your flowers.
- Dip the Q-tips into your paint. Use them to create dots of color at the end of each stem. These are your flowers!
- Think about how flowers grow outside. Do the same-colored flowers grow next to each other? Or are different colors all mixed together? Add as many flowers as you need to create your own field.
