Monet Style Autumn Leaves

Students in grades 4-6 created these autumn collages in the style of French Impressionist painter Claude Monet. We began by creating a watercolor painting using the three cool colors- blue, green and violet. We discussed using gentle curving lines to create the movement of water and break up the background space. To create the leaves, students used styrofoam to carve out a leaf. These were then colored in with marker and pressed onto a slightly damp piece of paper to create a relief print. When placing the leaves on the pond, we looked at some of Claude Monet's paintings and examined his use of color contrast.