🎨 **impressionism: Painting the World in Light and Color**

🎨 Impressionism: Painting The World In Light And Color

Introduction

Imagine stepping outside on a sunny day and trying to capture the way the light dances on a pond, the way a breeze flutters a dress, or how a bustling market smells and sounds. In the late 1800s, a group of artists decided to paint exactly those fleeting moments. Their new style is called Impressionism—a word that comes from the French word impression, meaning “a feeling or picture of something that you see quickly.”

---

1. What Is Impressionism?

Impressionism is a way of painting that focuses on Light, Color, and the Instantaneous Feeling of a scene rather than every tiny detail.

• Brushstroke – a single line or dab of paint made with a brush.
• Palette – the range of colors an artist uses.

Instead of smoothing everything together, Impressionists used Short, Visible Brushstrokes so the viewer’s eye could blend the colors, just like mixing crayons in your mind. This technique makes the picture look alive and often changes depending on the time of day or the weather.

Example

Claude Monet’s famous painting “Impression, Sunrise” shows a sunrise over a harbor. Notice how the orange sun and the blue water are made of quick, separate strokes. If you stand far enough away, the colors melt together, and you see a glowing sunrise.

---

2. Meet the Masters

Artist	Famous Work	What They Loved to Paint
Claude Monet	Impression, Sunrise	Water, gardens, and light
Pierre-Auguste Renoir	Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette	Happy people dancing outdoors
Edgar Degas	Ballet Rehearsal	Dancers, horses, and everyday life
Camille Pissarro	The Harvest	Countryside and farmers

These artists often painted En Plein Air (a French phrase meaning “outdoors”) so they could feel the wind, hear the birds, and see the true colors of nature.

---

3. Cause and Effect: How Impressionism Changed Art

Cause: In the mid‑1800s, many artists were taught to paint in a very realistic, detailed style called Academic Art, which required long, careful work in studios.

Effect: A few daring painters grew tired of the strict rules. They wanted to show how Light and Atmosphere could change a scene in an instant. By breaking the old rules, they created a fresh, lively style that inspired later movements like Post‑impressionism, Cubism, and even modern Digital Art.

Result: Today, you can see Impressionist ideas in cartoons, video games, and even in the way we take photos—capturing a quick “impression” of a moment.

---

4. Did You Know? 🤔

• The word “Impressionism” was first used as a Criticism. A newspaper reviewer called Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise” an “impression” rather than a finished painting, and the name stuck!
• Monet painted the same water lilies Over 30 Times, each at a different season and time of day, to study how light changes colors.
• Some Impressionists painted With Their Fingers or even Spatulas (flat tools) to create thick, textured spots of paint.

---

Mini Experiment: “paint Like an Impressionist”

What You Need

• A piece of thick paper or canvas
• Watercolor or acrylic paints in several bright colors
• A medium‑size paintbrush (or a toothbrush for fun!)

Steps