Waterloo Bridge 1903

Claude Monet made this painting of Waterloo Bridge with oil on canvas, way back when. He wasn't trying to paint a 'likeness' of a bridge, he was painting the light *on* the bridge. And look, you can see how each little brushstroke is laid down with such care! It's almost scientific; he's mapping out how light behaves. The colours are so interesting—these murky blues mixing with flashes of oranges and yellows. It's not a clear picture, it's a feeling. The surface is built up through layers of paint. Look closer at those strokes of orange on the water. See how the paint is laid on quite thick there? It gives the painting this amazing texture, like you could almost reach out and touch it. I wonder what brushes he was using? Monet had this crazy obsession with painting the same scene over and over again, in different light. It's like he was saying, "The world isn't one thing, it's a million different things, all at once." You can see similar ideas in the work of someone like Turner. It's all about embracing the mess and the magic.