One of the best impressionist painters.

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/monet/haystacks/wheatstacks.jpg

 http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/monet/haystacks/

Monet painted highly dimensional paintings using only flecks and blobs of paint mixed to just the right color. If you look close, the painting is flat and made of little obvious blobs. If you stand back, the scene has full depth.

Before the impressionist movement, painters did sketches in the field, and then rendered illusionistic paintings, for many days, in their studios, with the help of several assistants. This "Hollywood Effect" period of painting created completely over-produced "masterpieces" capable of helping royalty advertise themselves.

Impressionists set their easel up on the scene, and tried to quickly paint a subject before the light changed. Like all painters after the 1850s, they learned to compete with the camera. Impressionists competed by imitating a camera; set up on the spot, and take a snapshot.

Monet's "haystacks" series illustrates something all other art historians have overlooked: All Monet paintings have a specific temperature. The early dawn haystacks (and you can tell it's dawn, not sunset) are quite chilly. The above painting just after sunrise shows warm sunlight on cool ground. The Gardens at Giverny can be steaming in the summer sun, or cool and tranquil under the trees. --PhlIp