One Day at A Time: Local Impressionist Art

Last year we spent a couple weeks talking about Impressionist artists and their art. Peanut was the only one of the girls that seemed the least bit interested, but that should not have surprised me because she loves anything that has to do with art.

My husband mentioned to me that he thought he had heard that the Flint Institute of Arts had a new traveling impressionist exhibit. Since I was a teenager I have enjoyed impressionist art and thought it would be a fabulous thing to see. In addition, on Saturdays there is no entrance fee to the museum because all Saturdays are sponsored by Target stores. Sounded like a great, inexpensive day out to me! Since Peanut was the only one of the girls that was impressed by our art discussions last year, I decided we would make the trip a "date day", just her and mom. We had such a nice time!

Peanut amazed me....She stopped at EVERY single painting and talked about what she saw in the picture, how the light looked, how the water or trees looked, she kept saying, "Mom, I love this!" After we had looked at each painting she even went back through and showed me which painting was her favorite in each hall. Here she is in front of one of her favorites. I remember it is called At the Fair, by Henri Cross. It was a really colorful, a much different piece than the stereotypical impressionist painting, but it was great to see it there because it certainly showed the range of art that fits into that category.

Here she is in front of a painting by Mary Cassat. When discussing this art last year we specifically spent some time talking about Cassat so it was awesome to see a piece by her!

When she approached this painting and I pointed out the artist, her jaw dropped. Yes, it is by Monet. There were approximately 3 of them there. Last year she took after her mother and declared that Monet was her favorite artist.

After we were done with this exhibit we moved on throughout the museum. We entered a room that happened to have a beautiful painting of the Taj Mahal hanging on the wall. Since we just finished studying India Peanut had no trouble recognizing the building. It was a really beautiful piece of art.

Finally, we entered "The Renaissance Room" which captivated Peanut. The tapestries were gigantic and she just loved looking at them and talking about what she thought was happening in the picture. She enjoyed this room so much we had to go back and look a 2nd time.