Le Havre with rain clouds 1922

Paul Signac made this watercolor of Le Havre with some paint and a thin pen, at an unknown date. I love to look at watercolors by other artists. You see the hand so clearly. Signac has sketched the clouds with crayon, almost scribbling, and then dragged the brush across the sky to convey the rain. It looks like he did it fairly quickly, but you sense his touch in how the colors mingle. Maybe he was thinking about Turner, who also loved to paint the sea and sky, or maybe he was just trying to capture the feeling of that day. I like to imagine him standing there, the wind in his hair, trying to get it down before the rain really started coming down. It reminds me that we are all part of a conversation that spans centuries, trying to make sense of the world through the act of painting. We look at each other's work and we steal from each other, and in the process, something new emerges.