Water Lilies 1919

Claude Monet created these Water Lilies with oil on canvas, and in them he's really letting the process lead the way. Look at how the colors blend and dance together, it’s like he’s chasing after the light, trying to capture a fleeting moment. The texture here is everything, right? You can almost feel the thickness of the paint, imagine the strokes he used to build up those layers. I love the way the surface seems to shimmer and undulate, like the water itself is in motion. Notice the little dabs of color he uses to create the lilies themselves, how each one is unique and full of life. It's like he's not just painting what he sees, but how he feels being there, totally immersed in nature. Monet’s work paved the way for artists like Joan Mitchell, who explored similar themes of nature and abstraction with an equally bold approach to color and texture. In the end, art is all about seeing the world in new ways, embracing the messy and the imperfect, and finding beauty in the unexpected.