Claude Monet

Yesterday I traveled to Giverny to visit Claude Monet's house and the infamous garden behind it which has inspired numerous artists. Going there as an artist it was, as Georges would say, an artists pilgrimage- which is true.

Seeing art and seeing what has inspired such magnificent works is what is truly amazing. At one moment you are looking through someone else's perspective- observing their world in the colors and emotions which are imbedded into the work- and then the next minute you're looking at the same view, but through your own eyes.

Upon arrival at the gardens (not yet the water lilies) I was astonished to see the beauty of it; to imagine having this luscious garden as your own- right in the back of your house! I now understand why Monet painted as many nature paintings as he did. The sight of this garden was awe-strickening and would make any artist drop to their knees and begin to draw. However, I was in a time crunch and did not have that luxury.

Seeing the water lilies in comparison to seeing all his paintings of them was like looking at two different spectrums. In his paintings, the water was a clear and serene blue tinted green hue with trace amounts of light pastels. In actuality it was green, a bit murky but still managed to catch the rays as Monet had portrayed it. The water lilies themselves had changed color dramatically. In the paintings they were painted as frail and delicate flowers illuminated by light hues such as pink, green, and blue. Looking at them they were still beautiful but did not seem to give off this soft and delicate vibe.

Impressionism is all about capturing a moment in time; about capturing the essence of fleeting light. This is the reason why many impressionist artists, such as Monet, painted numerous paintings of the same thing yet with different colors due to the different times in the day or year. Impressionism has never been one of my favorite artistic periods yet I still admire and adore their use of color to portray the colors which the eyes do not see in a scene.

To me as an artist, this is one of my goals: to give the world a new view on something which no one might never have seen.

“People discuss my art and pretend to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it’s simply necessary to love.” -Claude Monet