Monet and spring

Monet has always been one of the biggest influences on my work. The impressionists just had a way of capturing the mood of a scene. There is a series of paintings by Monet (I think there are five in it) which depicts a cathedral in France. The paintings are all from more or less the same side, though the angle and vantage point changes somewhat. The really striking thing, though, is the way the mood is different in each one, just because the weather conditions and time of day at the time changed the light and the colors. The brightest uses soft pastel hues, like when you have a rosy sunrise and it tints the surrounding landscape, as if with a giant rose-hued brush. The darkest uses lots of deep grays and very somber tones. That one was before or after a storm.

I played around with using a similar composition to some of Monet's paintings a few times, just for fun. Here are a couple of pieces I did which were inspired by Monet's work directly:


This one has a little girl and her family dog out picking flowers, in an idyllic setting. This painting sold to benefit Save the Dalmatians, a canine rescue charity I help support, but prints of it are now available.


This one depicts a garden bridge at the famous Parc de Monceau in Paris. While visiting there (and having seen some of Monet's work at the Musee D'Orsay a few days before) I was reminded of Monet's painting of the bridge in the Japanese garden, and had to paint this one.

I'm out of town and away from my studio for a few days this week. I can't wait to get back to the easel. Spring always makes me want to paint flowers and landscapes!

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