Art like Snow: Techniques of Oscar-Claud Monet and Edgar Degas

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Imagine you are in a room, blindfolded. You do not know how you managed to be there, but you are. A mysterious, unknown force removes your blindfold only to reveal that the wall you are facing is as white as snow. You turn left and right and back, all the same. Then, suddenly as you stand amidst such vastness, the unknown force begins to create a whirlwind of the color of nature, green. Variations of green, pale blues, touches of yellow, maroon, and violet create a harmonious scene of which your eyes immediately feast upon. You notice you no longer are standing upon a white floor, but rather a green bridge formed with oil paint in long, horizontal, and vertical streaks with the perfect amounts of shadings and hues. What glory, you are no longer in the white canvas. You look down and, lo' and behold, you are above a delicately crafted pond with water lilies floating calmly about it. Tall grass lines the shore and willow trees augustly hover above it all. The force then whispers into your ear fulfilling you with the knowledge that you are in an impressionist painting, Oscar-Claude Monet's Water-Lily Pond. Oscar-Claude Monet, or simply Monet, was and to this day is one of the most famous painters in the world. He was involved in the Impressionist era in France and his subject revolved mainly around landscapes. Water-Lily Pond is but one of his many magnificent works. In addition, during this era, another great artist was born, Edgar Degas. Degas was also an impressionist, though his subject material was different from Monet's. Degas' focus was on people, particularly ballerinas. While the two impressionists share similar painting techniques and their victoire in the same era, the differences between them are clearly evident.

Osca...

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Artwork is more than just a pretty picture painted on a canvas. It simply requires imagination and the willingness to engage in experimentation. Movements such as, Impressionism, Surrealism, Baroque, and Neoclassicism encompass this and what their creators wish to reflect. Impressionists in the 1800s tried to achieve the portrayal of life in manner where

the use of pastels reign in creating scenes of harmony, truth, and delicacy be it in nature or humans. Oscar-Claude Monet and Edgar Degas have triumphed in doing so. Thanks to their varied subjects in their masterpieces, they have demonstrated that art can derive from the same movement and still encompass what is being portrayed despite the differences. It is like

snowflakes, they are cold, composed of crystalline structures, and are of course snow. However, no two snowflakes are alike, but their matter is.

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