In the glowing afternoon sun, a stream of people strolled through the arboretum gates to the outdoor amphitheater. The group gathered for instruction on painting the landscape. This Oct. 7 program, free to Connecticut College students and organized by Maggie Redfern, assistant director of the arboretum, brought Julie Riggs, an art educator from the Florence Griswold Museum in East Lyme, to campus. Riggs taught members of the College and New London communities about American impressionism and how to make one’s own impressionist works.
Riggs gathered the crowd into a semicircle on folding stools for her lesson. First she explained impressionism. The art form was popular in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries before cameras were omnipresent. Light and movement within a landscape inspired impressionism. Artists would quickly capture the scene with their brushes and acrylic paint. They needed to be hasty, as changing light or moving people could alter the image and make for a less favorable picture. Because of the necessary speed, the original paintings were on little canvases and broad, hasty brush strokes were common. There were no straight lines. After the painting was complete, artists could sell the original, or bring their “snapshot” home and replicate the image on bigger canvases.
Next, Riggs explained that everyone would have an opportunity to attempt their own impressionist painting. “Start with the foreground,” she said. After a questioning look from a seven-year old in the front row, Riggs explained with more detail. Artists use three main layers to create depth in their painting. They use foreground, which contains the closest details to the painter; they use middle ground, which is the middle depth of the painting; and they use the background, which is the area farthest away. They paint top to bottom and back to front so that layering is easier. To explain these techniques, she had us turn around and look at the landscape around us. From under the honeysuckle lattice in the outdoor amphitheater in the arboretum, we could see the grass leading up to the stonewall. Behind that there is the pond, then trees, then sky. The grass and stonewall would be foreground, the pond and rushes would be middle ground, and the tall trees and sky would be background.
The main way to differentiate depth is through color. The foreground area is the lightest and the background is the darkest. “One really fun thing about impressionism,” Riggs said as her face light up, “is that you can paint anything any color you want to see it. Make the sky purple, the trees red, the grass a shade of blue. You have artistic license.” Then she explained that artists usually mix their own paints. They use four colors – red, yellow, blue, and white. From these, artists can make their own colors, ranging from royal purple to peach. In the impressionist world, black is forbidden from entering the studio. Instead, artists use dark, dark brown. Using this brown also helps create depth in an image.
Impressionist artists use acrylic paint, an opaque water-based paint, which they apply with a variety of brushes. Bigger ones are used for the initial coat of paint on the canvas, usually the background. As artists add finer detail, they use smaller brushes. Acrylic brushes generally have longer handles so that the artist can stand back while painting. The brush itself is most commonly made of synthetics or bristle today, but was originally made of horsehair. Acrylic brushes can be used for watercolor or oil paint, but watercolor or oil paint brushes cannot be used for acrylic paint because it is too thick and will make non-synthetic bristles stick together.
After explaining brushes, paints and techniques, Riggs told us to pick up a bucket of brushes, a plate of paints and a 10”x14” canvas. We sat down facing the pond and began to paint for the next two hours. During this time, Riggs walked around, giving advice and never-ending compliments. It was a wonderful, peaceful atmosphere.
She explained the history of the Florence Griswold Museum, where she works, to an inquisitive painter. People inspired by European impressionism went to Europe, particularly Paris, to study the art form. When they returned to the United States, artists gathered in towns with gorgeous landscapes, but close to major cities where they could sell their work. Old Lyme, Connecticut was an ideal destination for these artists. It is close to New York and Boston, but it still has ponds, fields, forests and the ocean to paint. Because of this perfect location, it became an artist colony. It is the town with the first American impressionism museum. Because of this, visitors from all over the world flock to this little town in Connecticut to study its past and current art.
The Florence Griswold Museum offers a similar program on its campus every Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. During “Make a Painting Sunday,” the community gets to experience what the collection of people in the Connecticut College Arboretum enjoyed on the sunny fall afternoon. •
