The Rose Path, Giverny 1922

This is Claude Monet’s The Rose Path, Giverny made with oil on canvas, the dimensions are 100 by 89 cm. It is unsigned and undated. Monet lays down these strokes of paint so loosely and intuitively, it’s pure process. There’s a tension between what we see and what we know about the subject matter, like a fleeting memory of a place. The painting is a riot of colour, but it's the texture that really grabs me. You can almost feel the thick impasto of the paint, the way it catches the light. Look at the way he builds up the layers, like he’s sculpting the canvas with his brush. The path itself is just a suggestion, a few strokes of orange and yellow that lead our eye into the depths of the garden. I’m reminded of the late work of Turner, the way he dissolves form into pure light and colour. Both artists show us that painting is a conversation, a back-and-forth between seeing and feeling, knowing and not-knowing.