Rainy Season 1919

Ito Shinsui made this watercolor painting, Rainy Season, and it’s like he was trying to catch a feeling more than a place. Look at those greens and blues! I can almost hear the rain trickling down, making everything shimmer. I bet Shinsui stood there, letting the colors of the scene seep into him, before trying to capture the essence of it all on paper. Did he keep working on it even when the sun came out? The way he’s layered those strokes, it's like he’s building up the atmosphere, bit by bit. It reminds me of some of the early Impressionists, like Monet, who were all about capturing light and mood. Shinsui's not just painting what he sees, he’s painting how it feels to be there, in that rainy moment. And that, my friend, is the magic of painting.