Path through the Irises 02 1917

This is "Path Through The Irises 02", painted by Claude Monet, probably with oils, and sometime during his life. There's a real emphasis here on the process of painting, the way the colours are layered and blended. It's like he's trying to capture not just the look of the irises, but also the feeling of being surrounded by them. The materiality is key to how it works. The paint is applied in these really visible strokes. You can almost feel the texture of the canvas beneath. I am drawn to the marks in the lower part of the frame that look like little blue commas. Each one stands out, but they come together to form something much bigger and more complex, so the single brushstrokes are also a field of colour. Thinking about other artists, I am reminded of Joan Mitchell, especially in the way she used colour to create a sense of depth and space. Like Mitchell, Monet invites us to lose ourselves in the painting, to wander through the irises and discover new things each time we look.