artists as gardeners, do u use plants to 'paint' like Monet?

very true, they had to eat! sometimes it is personal taste, sometimes errors of judgement by the artist but often just financial necessity. The Marmottan has letters written by Monet to friends begging for loans as he was so broke - mind you 'broke' is relative! being broke in a large house/garden is not quite the same as broke in a cold garret.

There are a lot of beautiful gardens around Boston, especially near the Gardner Museum (anyone who is interested in fantastic art/architecture...check that out). Gardening is as much of a style of art as painting is to me.

Your garden sounds stunningly beautiful, Nobody,
and, I assume......no weeding.

Here in the north, I am battling to distinguish between
the treasure trove of flowering weeds (bright yellows, clumps of white flowers) and the truly glorious perennials (peonies, holllyhocks, rhododendrons.

When weeding the other day, a snake slithered out from under a large stand of hydrangeas.......non-poisonous, but nevertheless......shudder!

Pretty impressive that Monet managed to
find the time to be both a painter and gardener........

... especially, when you see, how many gardeners today are engaged in his garden :wink:

but he had gardeners to do most of the work remember - he designed, they dug and planted - life is so much easier if you have 'servants'.

the way that the plants were used is an extension of his painting, using sweeps of colour and shapes, recession, movement, light and shade, multiple key composition points etc
That is what i was trying to say in the title of this thread.