On the cliff at Pourville. The afternoon haze blurs the boats as the gaze goes farther afield, the cliff is an unsteady base to stand on; and yet, I could sit on the edge of the precipice for hours, watching time sail by.
The cliffs at Etretat. Another of Monet’s favorite subjects; he painted the cliffs and the sea from all angles. Of course, this isn’t the more famous part of the cliffs, the arch (which I assume is on the other side of this angle, behind the artist) might possibly lay claim to that and Monet painted … Continue reading
City by the sea. The air is warmer in this work; the tone is summer, the breeze saturated. The tree in the foreground is suddenly what you are thankful for!
One of Monet’s seascapes. He chooses his place carefully, the sunlight catching the city at just the right angle. Placed perfectly between the green canopies of the trees, the azure of the sky and the deeper blues of the ocean, it seems suspended in mid-air. Why is there no path to it visible, I wondered.
A windswept hillside, a lazy afternoon, a house arising in the distance. Monet made the building almost organic in the way it merges with the hill it rests atop. This isn’t a place where the human presence predominates, we are just a small cog in the vast machine…
Oat and Poppy field – Giverny 1890. The sky is almost featureless, contrasting the riotous reds run amok on the field below…
The Petit Creuse river. How vivid the rippling water, the jagged hills, the sun-dappled heath!
Poplars in the morning.
Poplars on the Epte. Monet painted this particular stand of poplars many times, at all hours of the day. He seemed to have been mesmerized with how the light played on them throughout the day and through the seasons. This is the poplars on a summer afternoon.
Monet loved going out into the meadows and paint. Impressionism at its heart was about being out of the studio, of painting fast and quick, of capturing a real moment before it was gone.