Water Lily Pond, Evening (left panel) 1926

This left panel of Monet’s ‘Water Lily Pond, Evening’ is made with oil paint; it's all about capturing light through these gorgeous, broken strokes. You can see how the texture of the paint creates this shimmering effect, like light dancing on water. The way Monet layers these colors – greens, blues, yellows, reds – it's like he's not just painting what he sees, but what he *feels*. There’s this one patch of deep yellow on the right; it feels so sunny and warm, almost like a memory of a perfect summer evening. You can almost feel the humidity! Monet's process reminds me of Joan Mitchell; she's another painter who transformed her emotional experience into abstract landscapes. Both Monet and Mitchell show us that painting isn't about perfect representation, but about embracing the fluidity of perception and feeling. The best art holds onto that beautiful ambiguity, that sense of something just out of reach.