The Art of the Garden

You will need:
  A image to work from (see below)
  Colour media of choice (and brushes and water)
  Support/surface appropriate to choose media and technique.

As you know I am a big believer in learning through study and imitation, and frequently copy Artists’ styles and artworks myself in order to learn from them. 

This next activity involves just that: in preparation for creating your own original garden work of art I want you to choose and copy a garden painting by one of the following artists: Monet, Klimt, Van Gogh, Renoir, Bonnard or Kandinsky.

Through making a copy of one of their painting I want you to particularly notice their use of colour (the palette choices and tonal range/ contrast) , composition (including viewpoint and picture format -square/ rectangle etc) and mark-making (texture of paint & direction, shape and size of brush marks).

Click here for a selection you can choose from, but their are many more available on the internet (or books!) that you could use. 

Alice's example; following Monet:

You can use any media to make your copy and any scale (small to large). it is really advisable to work on the same format so this may involve cutting down or sectioning off a board/ piece of paper.

The Extra Challenge/ Texture Twist.

If you enjoyed experimenting with the textured surfaces in the previous activity -why not try picking one of the techniques (tissue paper/ modelling paste/ All Purpose Filler) as a surface to create your copy on.

Watch the demo video:

Snapshots of the process based on a Klimt

Klimt original