Garden near Lucca c. 1910

John Singer Sargent made this watercolour, Garden near Lucca, with broad, sweeping washes and close observation. It's a masterclass in less-is-more, you know? Look at the way the watery blue suggests the sky. Sargent has created a convincing sense of depth and volume through colour and tone. The whole thing feels immediate, like he was right there, capturing a fleeting moment. The paint handling is so confident, so intuitive. See how he defines the architectural details with just a few strokes? It's like he's saying, "Here's the essence, the feeling of this place." The cascade of flowers is a flurry of greens and purples, a burst of life against the stone. You think about someone like Bonnard, who also used these quick notations of colour to give an impression of a scene or a place. Ultimately, painting is a form of poetry, isn't it? It's about capturing the world in all its messy, beautiful ambiguity.