It is many painters’ dream to be able to stay in Monet’s garden to paint.
If your medium is watercolor, pencils, ink… no problem. Just sit down on a bench (preferably) and paint. But if you use acrylic, for instance, and need an easel therefore, you must ask for allowance. Please get in touch with Fondation Monet. If there aren’t too many requests for the day you wish, you will be granted the privilege of staying in the gardens after closing time. This is the best way to feel just like Monet, almost alone on the grounds. Same vibrations, same inspiration. Have a great time!
Painting Giverny
January 15, 2012
Misty Morning on Monet’s Pond
October 17, 2011
The misty days of October are back! On Monet’s pond at Giverny, they create a soft atmosphere enhancing the different textures of the foliages. Among all these greens, the sumac of Virginia flames. Asters fill in the flower beds in big bouquets. The boat awaits the gardener. He will soon arrive to maintain the pond.
Through the Window
September 29, 2011
The garden appears like an additional painting among the canvases hanging on the wall.
Sensitive Water Lilies
July 3, 2011
Water lilies are sensitive to cold. When the night is overcast and mild, they are all open in the morning. But if the night is clear, they close and need several hours of sunshine to open again.
They like a warm water not only to open, but also to bloom. On Monet’s pond, water lilies are gorgeous during heat waves, they become scarce during rainy and cool periods.
This is true for a big pond like Giverny. For gardeners who would like to grow water lilies in a wash basin, it is wise to look for a partly shaded spot. In direct sunshine, the water of a small container becomes very warm. If some like it hot, it is not the case of water lilies.
Standard Roses
June 13, 2011
As tall as trees, they measure over 2 meters and they offer their pink blossom like enormous bouquets.
Rose trees are generally not strong enough to resist wind, so they are grown on metallic structures that look like umbrellas or mushrooms, according to your imagination. Some people call them weeping roses, that’s really too sad.
In Monet’s flower garden, they tower over big bunches of peonies and large flower beds of pink and red poppies.
Pink Blossom at Giverny
April 15, 2011
So we can imagine the novelty of introducing exotic varieties like crab apples, Japanese cherry or plum trees in a little village on the countryside like Giverny. Their pink blossom must have looked unique to Monet, and to his neighbours.
The pink exotic trees are widely spread by now, but in April their short beauty still enchants Spring in Claude Monet’s gardens.
The ‘Tulip Fields’ of Giverny
March 12, 2011
If you are planning a visit to Monet’s garden in Giverny, you may wonder what is the best time of year to come. There are many! The scenery, the flower show change with the seasons. One of my favorite time is the tulip’s.
Tulips flower mostly during the second half of April. Their blooming is spectacular, gorgeous, breathtaking. They offer colors, colors, colors, always bright ones, they can have soft and tender or very warm flaming tones. They exist in an infinite variety of forms and aspects. And they provide amazing mass effects.
This border, for instance, was designed by Monet after visiting and painting the tulip fields in Holland. He was impressed by the large colorful stripes of these cultures.
When he came back to Giverny, Monet decided he wanted a very long border in his garden, from top to bottom, planted according to a monochromatic scheme.
This oversized flower bed records to his visual experience in Holland, as far as color and size are concerned. But Monet could not be satisfied with one sort of tulips only. His ‘tulip field’ is a very refined mixed border composed of many different sorts of tulips. They harmonize, their pink is slightly different, producing the subtle variation of tones that one can observe on an impressionist painting. A beautiful example of the way Monet used flowers like brushstrokes.
A Place for Love
February 19, 2011
Lovers in their own dreams start walking around or sitting on the benches, enjoying the Spring sunshine.
Giverny is a nice place to celebrate love, love of a partner, of parents, relatives, and also love for gardens, nature, painting and simply beauty.
It was Valentine’s day this week: I dedicate this post to all lovers.
Ice Cold
February 1, 2011
The last leaves of water lilies are petrified in the ice.
The garden looks asleep, while the gardeners are very busy. They maintain the bamboos that were bent by the snow, they remove the dry ones and take them away. It is a big job to carry away these 25 foot long sticks!
The gardeners have also chopped down the sick weeping willow to plant a new one, they cleansen the walkways, put the pansies in the flower beds…
The guardrails of the little curved bridge are missing. They are currently being repainted in the garage.
When I was in Monet’s garden this morning, I had the feeling of visiting a backstage, having a glimpse on a Giverny that nobody will see, the secret Giverny of wintertime.
Looking Forward to Spring
January 28, 2011
On the hills of the Seine valley, the pastures are still grey, waiting for a new grass to grow.
But in Monet’s garden, the first flowers display their colors.
The weeping willows open their buds and swing their freshly born leaves over the pond.
On the river side, the small basket willows stretch their orange twigs.
These traditional trees are useful to prevent the banks from slipping into the river, and they are lovely too.
It is still Winter right now, but we are all looking forward to Spring.
Holly
January 10, 2011
Not a wild, ordinary one: it has beautiful golden rimmed leaves. Nonetheless, the holly disappears in the magnificence of flowers during the season, when the garden is in full bloom. Nobody takes any notice of the flowerless tree.
During the winter, on the contrary, when all the flowers are dead or waiting for better times to come, the holly recovers its majesty. This is probably why its prickly leaves and red berries are very much related to the time of Christmas and New Year.
Autumn
October 27, 2010
The foliage change their greens or dark reds to bright tones. The weeping willows get gold, the poplars and the wisterias yellow, the needles of the taxodium rost, the liquidambars turn red and orange…
The huge copper beech is not copper anymore, but a light brown, and all the leaves of the irises, thalias, hostas and other water side plants say goodbye to the season in a mixture of green, brown and yellow shades.
All these colors reflect into the pond in a stunning way. Each hour is different, from vaporous foggy mornings to bright sunny afternoons, and brings its own light on to the pond for the enjoyment of the last visitors of the season.
Monet Small Bridge
October 7, 2010
The big one is covered with wisterias, whereas the small one doesn’t have any.
But a neighbouring wisteria can give the illusion that it is covering the little bridge too!
Its golden color brightens all the greens around.
Summer Light
September 13, 2010
The flower beds that looked organised in early season are now full of overgrown plants, sunflowers, dahlias, cosmos…
Under the clematis, smaller borders catch the morning light dancing on the freshly watered gauras.
Weeping Willow
August 18, 2010
On the side of his water lily pond at Giverny, Monet planted several willows.
Two of them still survive, although some branches start to become hollow.
But young willows planted thirty years ago, like the one on the picture, are now mature, as big as Monet could have seen them.
Weeping willows fascinate because of their vertical twigs that beautifully reflect into the pond.
Visitors will also see two other kinds of willows, the tortuous ones, very decorative, and the basket willows.
Generally pruned drastically to force the willow to produce new twigs every year, that will be cut to weave baskets, these willows like the river borders and are part of the traditional landscape of Normandy.
In Monet’s gardens, however, one of them was allowed to grow, and its branches pointed to the sky like a V make it resemble a person with the arms up. A very happy willow!