Water Lilies 1907

Monet’s water lilies are pure colour, all blues and greens and yellows, daubed onto the canvas in short, flickering strokes. Just imagine the plein air painter, hunched over his easel, squinting into the sun, dabbing away in his garden at Giverny. I can totally sympathise, trying to capture a fleeting moment. The surface is built up with layers of paint, each stroke adding to the overall texture and depth, like memory. These horizontal sweeps are, of course, water but also act like the artist's breath, a slow steady, rhythm, as he patiently observes the play of light on the water, the way the colours shift and change. He’s trying to pin down something unpinnable, not just the lilies themselves but a feeling, an atmosphere. Monet was obsessed with water lilies, painting them over and over again. He's in conversation with other painters, all trying to make sense of the world through colour and form. Painting is a form of embodied expression and, like life, it embraces ambiguity, multiple interpretations, and constant change.