Giudecca c. 1913

John Singer Sargent made this watercolor painting in Venice; it's all soft browns and blues and the ghostly pale architecture. You can almost see him there with his brush, dipping into the water and letting the colors flow across the paper. I wonder if he felt the weight of art history, being in that amazing city. The way he's captured the light reflecting off the water, it's like he's trying to bottle the very essence of Venice. There’s this gorgeous controlled chaos, the way the water blurs everything, but the architectural details stay crisp. I imagine him squinting, capturing the essence of the buildings and boats, editing and amplifying all at once. It's like he's saying, "This is what it feels like to be here, now." Painters have always been in conversation, looking, stealing, and riffing off each other. It is never about perfection but feeling something and trying to share it. Sargent did just that.