Wednesday 14 October 2015

Oct. 14, 2013
Monet's Garden...An amazing day.
No painting in the garden is allowed except by special permission. Our guide was especially good. I felt I really had a door opened to the life of Monet and his family.

Things I remembered she said:
Monet had 6 gardeners on his 8 acres. The water gardener had to wash the leaves of the waterlilies in the middle of the night, so Monet if he wish to paint could capture the light reflecting off them. They were near a dirt road with lots of traffic, causing lots of dust.

Visiting the garden is wonderful and an experience most times of the year. Spring for tulips, Summer - waterlilies, and Fall - asters, daisies. Summer of course is the busiest time of the year for tourists. In July and August you could wait in long lines to move from one garden to the next through a tunnel, single file.

The Benches in the garden were designed and built by Monet. They looked brand new!

He painted light and did a series of paintings in the pond / waterlily garden. Ten paintings at one time to reflect the change of light every 7 minutes.

I will take my sketch book next visit as I saw many school children carrying theirs and some of our group had a pleasant time sketching near Monet's home.

Walking in the garden is like walking in his paintings, it would have been difficult to stop and not see it all.

The following sketch was in the village of Giverny before we went into the garden. We were asked to sketch something and then pick out a small part of it and paint it. This was to show us how many paintings are in one and how important it is to simplify.
It really is amazing when you give it a try. Even more so when you are painting you actually remember to do it.




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