Monet: Still Life with a Honeydew Melon, 1879 (excerpt)
This session gives us the opportunity to explore Monet's approach to colour vibration, with delicate and simple brush strokes.
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- About this painting
- Colour
- What will we learn in this session?:
- Resources
- Standard Materials
- Student Paintings
About this session
- Title: Still Life with a Honeydew Melon, 1879
- Creator: Claude Monet
- Date Created: 1879
- Style: Nineteenth-Century European Painting Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
- Physical Dimensions: 680(w) x 900(h) mm
- Original Title:
- Catalogue No:
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Museum Barberini, Potsdam, Germany
The original work is in portrait format. Cropping it to landscape allows us to fill more of our canvas with detailed work on the grapes and fruit.
Materials
- Provided: Canvas, paint, impasto, extender, gel, pencils, brushes, palette knives, apron, light refreshments
- BYO: Sketch book
Colour
- Primary Red (Crimson)
- Yellow Ochre (Yellow Oxide)
- Primary Yellow (Cadmium Yellow)
- Primary Blue (Pthalo Blue)
Extended palette:
Resources
What will we learn in this painting?
- Colour Vibration
A close look at the light grapes reveals a plethora of colours.
The dark grapes are a good study in creating form with tone.
Tone
A tonal sketch, removing detail and colour, helps us see the underlying designs.
Blocking
Loosely blocked.
More colour added prior to glazing.
Using Cezanne's simplified shapes to find the rhythm and placement of the grapes.
Texture
Using Monet's vocabulary of texture we will create a chromatic story of light which captures the essence of the scene.
Detail
Detail from my interpretation.
My interpretation.