The Look at Montauban in rain 1922

Paul Signac made this watercolour of Montauban in the rain, and it feels like he was really having fun with mark-making. It’s all about the process of seeing and recording. Look how the strokes of watercolor and pencil aren't trying to hide themselves; they're just there, making a record of a moment. The paper shines through in places, letting the light bounce around and giving the whole scene a feeling of lightness, like the air after a storm. You can see it in the way the colors bleed into each other, like the pinks of the buildings melting into the grey of the sky. I'm drawn to the scribbled reflections in the water, those vibrant strokes of colour that dance and shimmer. There’s something joyful about it, a reminder that art isn’t about perfection, it’s about embracing the messy, unpredictable beauty of the world around us. It reminds me of some of Bonnard’s later watercolours, an artist who saw the world through a similar lens of pure colour.