Water Lilies 1919

Monet made these Water Lilies with oil paint, and what strikes me is how he sees the world as made of touches, of fleeting moments. Look at the surface: it's all broken up, dabbed with blues and greens and purples, laid on kind of thick. The lilies themselves aren't solid things, but fuzzy edges of color, barely there. There’s one lily right in the middle, a little brighter than the rest, almost glowing. It’s not really a flower, but a memory of a flower, or a feeling of one. It reminds me a little of late Turner, the way he dissolved everything into light and color. And like Turner, Monet is less interested in showing us what's there than in how it feels to be there, floating on the water, drifting with the light. It's like the world is always changing, and all we can do is try to catch a glimpse of it as it goes by.