We took the kids on a National Gallery visit this half term. I haven't been there in years and, whilst I can appreciate the superb skill required to produce fine art, must profess to being quite bored by endless portraits.
Stepping into the Monet room was a game changer, however, and I was absolutely stunned by his wonderful interpretation of natural images like lily ponds. Monet - a leading figure in the French impressionist movement - saw life in the way I teach our children to see it. He could take a slice of the natural world and inject it with magic. The heartbeat of mother nature can be felt emanating from his incredible images. The children were just as impressed as we were.
Monet built a new studio in Giverny, so he could work on huge canvasses of his water-lily pond. He was so captivated by the simple beauty that he felt compelled to interpret it again and again. If life has an invisible power, then somehow he was able to let a sliver trickle into his art work.
Images like this help children to appreciate the wonder in nature. It connects the living and artificial worlds we inhabit and challenges people to look at things differently. I will choose a nice bright spring or summers day to visit one of the large ponds in our area and, as the sunlight strikes the surface and inhabitants go about their business, we will remember how this incredible painter insisted we view it.
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