The Creation 1902

James Tissot made this small painting, The Creation, with delicate brushstrokes and a hushed palette of blues and whites. It’s like a whisper of a painting, tentative and ephemeral. You can almost feel Tissot there, cautiously building the composition, one stroke at a time. It's a bit like that moment in painting where you’re not sure what you’re doing, where the image seems to be emerging from the mist of the unknown. The paint looks so fluid, it makes me think of Turner's seascapes, but with a more intimate, almost devotional feel. Look at how the washes of white suggest light, atmosphere, and form all at once. That single, rising gesture in the center – is it land, sky, or something else entirely? What I love about painting is how it invites us into this space of uncertainty, where meaning is always shifting and evolving. We're all just trying to make sense of the world, one brushstroke at a time, adding to a conversation that has been going on for centuries.