The Eure in the Twilight Sun 1901

Francis Picabia made this painting, "The Eure in the Twilight Sun," with oil on canvas, and it's a trip into a world of dabs and dashes. The colour palette is soft - greens, blues and browns - giving it a hazy, dreamlike feel. You can almost feel him experimenting, trying to capture the light just so. I can imagine Picabia standing there, brush in hand, squinting at the scene before him. What's so cool about this is that it's not just about depicting a landscape; it’s about how we perceive it. The paint is applied in short, broken strokes, creating a sense of movement and vibration. That lone figure on the riverbank, blurred as if by a heat haze. This reminds me of his contemporaries like Monet, playing with light and colour in similar ways. Painting is like having a conversation across time. Artists are always building on what came before, riffing on ideas, pushing boundaries. And here, Picabia reminds us that seeing is never passive; it's an active, embodied experience. It's all about the dialogue between the artwork and the viewer.