Monet exhibit leaves an impression

Reggie Miles said he never considered himself a big fan of art museums.

But that might have changed this week.

After a traveling exhibit on impressionist painter Claude Monet visited Parkside Middle School this week, Reggie, a 14-year-old eighth-grader, said he gained a new appreciation for art.

"I hadn't been an art appreciator before," he said. "But now that I've seen this up close, I think I'd like to go to art museums and see more."

The exhibit, put together by the company Teacher's Discovery, included three large prints of Monet's most famous pieces, including a 17-foot-long print of "The Water Lily Pond; Pink Harmony."

The large prints hung in Parkside's hallway all week, alongside Monet-inspired work done by Parkside students.

Students have been studying Monet and impressionism in their art and French classes, and in the library, since November, said school librarian Jill Hubbell.

This week's traveling exhibit was the culminating event, she said.

In Myriam Lawrence's art classes, students learned about French impressionist painters and used the impres-sionists' dabbing technique to create their own art, Lawrence said.

French teacher Nancy Lopez said she used Monet's paintings to teach French vocabulary. Sixth-graders used the paintings to learn the French words for colors. In eighth-grade classes, students read a biography of Monet writ-ten in French and learned the past tense of verbs.

In the library, students went on a "scavenger hunt" to find the answers to questions about Monet's life and work.

Students also went on a field trip to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, where they got to see some of Monet's paintings up close.

"It was exciting for our students, because they saw it first hand, not just from a picture," Hubbell said.

Teachers also tied the traveling exhibit into language arts classes, Hubbell said.

Underneath the paintings, writing prompts were posted.

Friday afternoon, students in Lisa Zilka's seventh-grade language arts class sat in front of the exhibit, using it as inspiration for their writing.

A few other students, including Reggie, were busy making their own crayon drawings based on the Monet paint-ings.

"It's challenging trying to mimic one of the great artists," said eighth-grader Colt Burton, 14.

The students said the liked having the exhibit in their school all week.

"It's nice to have time to appreciate this kind of art," said eighth-grader Ijya Khatwada, 13. "When you just pass it in the hallway, you might not look at it that closely. It's good that it was here all week so we could see it."

Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014.