This paper describes the teaching method we developed to help students understand the complimentary color contrast of light and shadow of impressionists, using Monet's painting, "The Cave at Paul=Domoa," part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Ibaraki. In this method, firstly we analysed the composition of this painting from the viewpoint of color and confirmed that light and shadow are expressed as complementary color contrast. Based on this, students undertook two activities. The first was an activity in which students made a collage by selecting colors in complementary relation from 93 shades of colored paper of the Japanese color laboratory. In the next activity, students drew pictures using colored pencils while considering the difference between the highlighted parts and shadowed parts. This teaching method seemed to help students understand the thinking and methods of impressionist painters. An evaluation of the data of the students indicated that this method was effective.