To become acquainted with the period of Impressionism, students visit and research museum Web sites. They sketch ideas for an original landscape painting in the Impressionist style, exploring the various brushstrokes and color palettes used by the Impressionists.  The students then create their paintings using ClarisWorks Draw & Paint programs. An original student computer art gallery will be created.

A computer with Internet access and the software program ClarisWorks 5.0 are required.

THE STUDENTS

The participants in this program are eight-grade art students, but it can be adapted for other grade levels.

OVERALL VALUE

The students will appreciate the different techniques and effects that characterize the Impressionist period of art. And they will create their own computer-generated landscape paintings, which will then be compiled into a class computer art gallery online.

The class may take a trip to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, or any other public park,  to sketch and paint from direct observation of nature to capture the fleeting effects of light and color.

The students demonstrate proper use of acrylic paint and color mixing, and experiment with color to create secondary and tertiary colors in their sketchpads. And they use computer technology to identify resources, navigate the Web to conduct research, and create and manipulate images using ClarisWorks Draw & Paint programs.