t attended the Atelier Libre, a school where he met the later Impressionist group (Chew 1). There, he met Auguste Renoir who soon became a close friend of Monet's. In school, he was taught everything about art and painting. What influenced Monet the most were Realist thoughts. "Realist means being a friend of real truth" declared the movement's leader Gustave Courbet (Fraser 1). This quote changed Monet's perspective about art tremendously. The idea of sacrificing reality in art to a beautiful ideal was mind blowing to him. Still under the influence of the realists, Claude Monet experienced "open air" painting (Fraser 1). This is when a painter paints outside, in the open air, with nature. Monet's painting method was greatly influenced by a French painter named Manet. He used Manet's style, along with some of his own originality, to form his own painting technique. His method of painting came from observing the effects of light on a particular scene. Since his method of painting expressed the truth, Monet had to think more deeply into his field of study. He rarely used dark, somber colors. Instead, he used the rainbow prism effect to paint. That is why his paintings express much color. The color on color relationship worked smoothly on Monet's entire canvas. His eye for color and shadows made him an even better painter. Monet would start a painting by first drawing a rough sketch. He would then place broad parallel or criss-cross strokes and long loopy lines. He would cover the entire canvas, in a first session, in about 1 hour (sheff 4). He would then go back over the painting, defining crisp lines, using an extraordinary range of brushstrokes. They were usually thick, bright, fine, linear brushstrokes. As he painted at a continuous pace, his method of painting perfected itself. Selling paintings became a difficult task for Claude, especially when his new approach to painting was revealed. At first, the public shunned Monet's artwork, ...
