Monet and Me

How I Became a Plein Air Painter

If you are reading this post, you may or may not know that I am a painter, who paints the natural world in oil, acrylic and watercolor. I have been painting since I was a toddler. My earliest painting memory is of me standing at an easel in our kitchen at 4 years old. My parents saw that I loved to paint, so they bought me an easel. Several years later they enrolled me in a charcoal drawing class at the town’s community center. It wasn’t until high school that I became serious about painting. That’s where the real magic began, when I was awakened as an artist, and knew I wanted to be a painter. This is the story of my transformation.

I can still see the scene vividly. It was my sophomore year, during study hall, when I decided to explore the art history section of the Branford High School library. I pulled a few heavy art books down from the shelves. Sitting on the floor, I flipped through one book after another with little interest, until I opened up a book with folded over painting reproductions, too big to be contained within the pages. I lifted up the first folded tab to reveal a long horizontal painting that stretched out beyond the borders of the oversized book. A large reproduction of water with water lily pads stared up at me. The painting had no horizon line, no sky, and only a hint of clouds reflecting in the water. The pond was loaded with water lilies, which looked like splotches of paint, raw and unblended, layered next to and on top of each other, in overlapping brush strokes of many inter-mixed colors. I was suddenly awe struck. 

As I excitedly flipped through the pages, I saw painting after painting of the same pond, from various angles, at different times of day, and through the seasons. Some paintings contained weeping willow trees, others a footbridge reflecting in the pond water. I began to read the text, and discover that a French artist named Claude Monet painted these, while outdoors in nature. He lugged his easel, canvas, painting supplies and a large white umbrella to different locations around his property in Giverny, France. He painted on the path from his house to his garden. He sat at the water’s edge and painted the pond, the bridge, and the waterlilies.

The book contained black and white photographs of Claude Monet when he was older with a long white beard and a straw hat, sitting under an umbrella to avoid the parching sun. I was blown away to see that an artist could actually paint outdoors. I took the rest of the Claude Monet books down from the shelf. Mesmerized, I sat there undisturbed, and flipped through the pages with wonder.  

I checked out some Monet books that day, reluctantly leaving behind the giant water lily book too heavy to carry. I knew then that I would return to the library to look at more of Claude Monet’s and other artists’ work. Having never been to an art museum, the high school library served as my introduction to art history. The art book aisle became a favorite place to be at school, second only to the art classrooms. I made sure to fill my schedule with as many art electives as I could.  

At home on that same day, I devoured the text in the Claude Monet library books. I learned that Monet’s way of painting was labeled Impressionism, and that this type of painting was initially controversial, nor well received by art critics. Monet’s painting, Impression, Sunrise, was lambasted for it’s unfinished look and lack of descriptive detail in an 1874 review of the “Exhibition of the Impressionists,” an exhibit mounted by Monet and his painter friends as an alternative to the stodgy Salon de Paris exhibit in 1874.  Art critic, Louis Leroy, coined the term impressionism in his review as a disparagement, but Monet and this group of plein air painters embraced the term and made it their own. I learned that Monet grew up in coastal Le Havre, Normandy, where he met the artist Eugene Boudin, who took him under his wing and inspired him to make his first plein air paintings when he was 15 years old.

Claude Monet suffered a profound loss at age 17, with the sudden death of his mother, and a move into the city to live with his aunt. When he turned 18, his aunt, who was an artist, encouraged him to return to Le Havre to paint. It was there that he made his first plein air oil paintings. His home town of Le Havre was where Monet painted the famous, Impression, Sunrise, in 1872 at age 32.  I was 15 years old 1972, when I began to paint in plein air style, exactly one hundred years after Claude Monet painted this pivotal painting.

The day I discovered Claude Monet, was the day I made a vow to myself; to  become an artist and to draw and paint outside in nature, from that point on whenever I could.  That same week, I ventured outdoors with my watercolors (the only paints I had at the time) to create my first plein air painting. It was spring when I first set out to emulate Monet’s outdoor working habits. Fortunately, I lived a short walking distance to the shores of Long Island Sound. I left my house with a nap sack full of painting supplies and walked to the grassy bluff above the beach. While I stood there, I looked out at the sea, scanned the view and attempted to choose which scene to paint. Off to the left, was the view of the jetties that I jumped into the water from at high tide during the summers. Straight ahead, was the view of a family friend’s moored boat that I water-skied from. I peered past the boat, toward the horizon line to try and make out the shape of Long Island only visible on clear days.  I turned to the south, to the rocks ledges jutting out to the sea, the spot where my family and friends gathered to sunbathe and swim.  I decided to paint that scene; the one with the large flat rocks that stretched out into the sea.  

Taking a seat on bluff, I began spreading my art supplies out on the grass; a pencil, watercolor set, three brushes, a jar of water, a pad of watercolor paper and some paper towels. Sitting cross legged on the grass, I put the pad of watercolor paper on my lap and taped down the paper’s edge to prevent it from blowing in the sea breeze. First, I lightly sketched out the basic composition of the scene without details. I dipped my large brush into the water and wet the whole page to create a wash. With my medium sized brush, I added bits of ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, and paynes grey to depict the sea and sky. With the paper still damp, I blotted out the white clouds with a scrunched up paper towel. I mixed the colors of the rocks, applied the paint with layering and dry brush techniques, then added the cement seawall, trees, and the grassy bluff. I used my smallest brush to finish with details and to sign my first plein air painting! 

I painted my favorite scenes, the ones that were walking distance from my house; the wooden jetties where our Dad took us midnight swimming on hot summer nights, the rocks where our Mom sunbathed, the bobbing boats tied to buoys, and the woods at Young’s Pond. I made drawings of the elephant tree, the majestic copper beech tree in the field that overlooked the sea where my friends gathered. 

I worked throughout the seasons, even sitting in my parents’ cars with the heat on to paint in the dead of winter. I was in my element when connecting with and painting nature. Plein air painting came naturally to me as I painted the landscapes of my heart, the ones that felt like extended family. Painting outdoors provided me with a deeper way to connect with nature, to honor the places precious to me during my childhood and teen years.

My parents bought me my first Claude Monet book, Monet’s Water Lilies: Mirrors of Time, by Jean Dominique Rey. Not long after, we visited the nearby Yale University Art Gallery where I saw my first Monet paintings. Upon graduation, I attended Boston College, and became enamored by the city filled with art museums and galleries. I soon became inspired to paint cityscapes. I traveled by subway to set up my easel by the Charles River and climbed flights of stairs to reach my apartment’s rooftop to paint the views in watercolor and with oil paint on canvas. Making the decision to take my art more seriously, I transferred to Massachusetts Collage of Art to major in painting and art education. In my senior year, I traveled to Dulce, New Mexico in the winter to visit a friend, where I sat in the snow and painted the mountain views. Inspired by the grandiose western landscapes, I moved to Lake Tahoe to paint right after I graduated from Massachusetts College of Art.

As the years went on, I continued to be inspired by Claude Monet as well as many other artists from the rich culture of art history. It was like a dream come true when I finally saw Monet’s mural length water lily paintings for the first time, in the flesh, in a traveling exhibition at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. I harbored dreams of someday traveling to Giverny, France to visit Monet’s house, garden, and lily pond. I made this dream come true many years later when I walked through Monet’s flower gardens, stood on his footbridge and looked down into the water reflections of the lily pond, one of life’s peak experiences

As a child I was fortunate to have parents that encouraged me to follow my interests. I was blessed to have a daughter, whose memory inspires me to keep joy alive when times are tough. I am lucky to be able to go on painting excursions with my husband, who is also an artist. Settling in Massachusetts, I have spent many years painting the landscapes and seascapes of the South Shore, Cape Cod, and Maine.

When I set out to paint, I make a practice of painting the same scenes over and over again, at various times of day, in different weather conditions and through the seasons, emulating the work habits of Claude Monet. I look carefully to observe color nuances within the changing light while I paint the ocean, marshlands, and my flower gardens. When out painting, I often feel the presence of my ancestors. Every now and then, I call out to the spirit of Claude Monet, to thank him for the gifts he gave to me; of igniting in me a deep love for nature and a perseverance for painting the natural world, en plein air.