Ah, impressionism! Now we are getting to the sweet stuff, the eye candy of Western art. The name impressionism seems pretty straight forward, in these oil paintings you don't get hyper realism, but rather only the blurred impression of a landscape or portrait, creating a sense of movement. Yet, this art era was actually named cheekily for Claude Monet's painting, Impression Sunrise. It was a critic who coined the term, turning his nose up at the style. But the name actually caught on and the artists themselves began using it.

Impressionist painting is where we begin seeing sculpted, visible brush strokes, or impasto style painting. In these thick brush strokes you may notice that the paint is not mixed properly, producing unusual and vivid colors in the short brush strokes. This at the time was revolutionary, totally breaking the rules of painting.

This was surprisingly also the beginning of outdoor painting. French artists began to perfect their use of light by capturing the play of natural light on a landscape throughout the day. Along with painting non traditional outdoor scenes, portraits became non traditional as well, candid poses were often fuzzily captured, perfectly enclosing the feelings of the moment in which the painting was created.

Monet is probably the most famous artist of those that are considered "true" impressionists. He is also known as the founder of impressionist painting. Of all of the impressionist artists, Monet is said to be the one that truly adhered to the philosophy of impressionism, being painting by one's perceptions, painting a scene as it is seen as well as felt.

Edgar Degas is also one of the most famous impressionists, though unlike Monet, the Godfather of the Impressionism, Degas shunned the term and was very critical of the movement. Although he did not paint outside, it is impossible to not see that Degas' work of nudes, ballet dancers and opera singers is impressionist in style.

An impressionist painting is a beautiful, classic yet contemporary touch to any home. Oil Painting express has perfected the impasto style of painting offering a realistic reproduction of Impressionism. Impressionism has become a favorite style of art in years past, imagine how impressed your guests would be at your textured impressionist reproduction. Let Oil Painting Express recreate an impressionist masterpiece to bring to your home. What painting would you have made? Monet haystacks? Degas ballet dancers? Mary Cassat's un-posed portraits of women and children?