Monet's Garden Exhibition

Thursday 8/8/13

Having my second evening of caramels not starting till 5.30pm gave me the day free to do something. An exhibition of Claude Monet's artwork is currently on at the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria), so I took the opportunity to go & view it. Entry to the NGV is free, but for the Monet exhibition, the cost is $26.
Monet was passionate about gardening & his painting, & so, in a move away from the traditions & boundaries of the Old Masters, began including nature in his paintings. And so, he became one of the leaders of the Impressionism movement. He strived to capture the essence of modern life & so, painted outdoors, in the town & the country, painting quickly to capture the changing light, people & scenery. Rather than paint what he saw, he tried to render an impression of what he felt & experienced.
Many of his paintings focus on capturing light & reflections on water, such as in his waterlily pieces.
War & the death of his wife added a darkness to his paintings, as evidenced in the darker colours & large, heavy brush strokes.
In his final years, cataracts in both eyes affected his perception of colour, & muddied his vision. He labelled his tubes with the colour names, & put them in a certain order so he didn't have to rely on his eyes to identify the colours. He began to work increasingly from experience & memory. Cataract surgery & glasses renewed his confidence.
I'm no artist, but I imagine the term impressionism came about because his paintings don't show great detail, but rather, suggest or give an impression of the subject. Some of his pictures around the 1914-1920 period I found hard to make out. His paintings are a bit like pixelated images - indistinct close up, but clearer the further back you stand.

Photo: outside the NGV ad

Photo: a photo of Monet's house & garden at Giverny, which was the inspiration for many of his paintings

While at the NGV, I also took the opportunity to view the other displays, which include art & design from various centuries,  as well as modern & contemporary art. 
My favourite section was the European ??14-16th century that focused on religion. The detail in the wooden & limestone carvings was amazing.

Photo: a wooden carved figure. The detail in the sleeves of the robes & the ringlets of hair is incredible.

Photo: a stained glass window depicting the Lord & Lady with their coat of arms.

So, back to the reason I'm actually in Melbourne.....
chocolate & patisserie. It was the 2nd night of caramels where we finish off our recipes. Evening classes go over 2 nights as they are only 4 hours long, while day classes are 7 hours. Here's a picture of the booty, keeping in mind we got at least 15 pieces of each flavour as there was only 7 in the class.

Photo: from L-R, we have chocolate coated honeycomb, soft chocolate caramel (cobalt blue), lime caramel (green), almond coffee caramel (red), vanilla pecan caramel (light blue), passionfruit caramel (gold), salted caramel (rose pink)& caramel cream cups.