Watercolour and crayon
©2013 Charlene Brown
This year’s Sunday Lecture Series at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria opened
March 1 with a beautifully illustrated presentation on Monet’s Garden at
Giverny by Dr. Melissa Berry of the University of Victoria.
When Claude Monet moved to Giverny in 1883,
his objective was creation. Unlike previous artistic ventures, he no longer
seemed satisfied finding inspiration for his canvases in a world in which he
had no control. Thus, Monet’s largest, most immersive masterwork was born, or
rather cultivated. He approached his land with an artist’s eye, and continued
to develop his garden, adding to and drawing inspiration from it. It served as his subject matter until his
death in 1926.
I sketched the water garden at Giverny
seven years ago, after I had been there with my granddaughter on a Road Scholar
Intergenerational program.
