Antibes, the Pink Cloud 1916

Paul Signac dabbed this scene in Antibes with oil on canvas, and the result is like a mosaic of feeling. The whole thing shimmers, doesn’t it? I can imagine Signac out there, squinting at the light, thinking about how to break it down, how to build it back up again. Painting is like that, you know, a constant taking apart and putting back together. Look at the pink cloud, how it hangs there, heavy with light. It's almost edible, like cotton candy. The little strokes of color create this vibrating, almost dizzying effect. It reminds me of Seurat, of course, but there’s something else here, a kind of joy, a real love of the world. The surface of the water is a zillion little strokes, each one a tiny decision, a tiny observation. You know, artists are always talking to each other, across time and space. Signac was looking at the Impressionists, definitely, but he was also pushing things forward, trying to find a new way to capture the fleeting beauty of a moment. That’s what painting is, really, a way of seeing, a way of feeling, a way of being in the world.