I  love teaching French Impressionism to children in part due to my love of imperfection (yes, it comes so easily to me) and because of my respect for desirable difficulties. And also for the scandal that surrounded the innovation.

Children today are anxious in ways my generation never dreamed possible. Impressionism expects fast, excited strokes and the layering of colour that makes both the process and the outcome joyful. When one child spilled paint on another’s canvas, it became a happy accident that could be exploited. A dirty paintbrush with paint from a different colour is desired, even required to create the layering of colour.

Plus plus plus, I get to tell the story of how the Impressionists were rejected year after year by the Salon- the most sought after proof that you were accepted into the Parisian Art Scene. The Salon found their paintings too whimsical, too filled with light, too colourful, too fast and too suggestive. They were offended, even scandalized  by them.

If I had to choose a style of painting to be, I would choose this.

Who wants to be a member of a club that requires a different version of you?

The Impressionists were desperate to be accepted. Until one day they were not. It was then that they founded the Salon Des Refuses (Salon of the Refused) and began showing their work there, underground and clandestine. Without this courage, disregard for convention and lack of need for approval, would the world have come to know these amazing works of art?

Their difficulty was a gift.

So the large canvas inspiration for summer 2014, was none other than Monet’s Fisherman’s Cottage on the Cliffs of Varengeville.

And we are all proud of the results.

After all, we take the French Impressionist movement very, very seriously.

PS Were you also thinking I look really good with a moustache?

xo

(A special thank you to Malcolm Gladwell and his book David and Goliath, who reminded me of why I have loved this movement and this scandal since I discovered it in my twenties)