Green Door, Santa Maria della Salute c. 1904

John Singer Sargent made "Green Door, Santa Maria della Salute," with watercolor, and it looks like he did it pretty quickly. There's something wonderfully improvisational about it. The way the colors bleed into each other, it’s like he’s chasing a feeling more than a precise image. Look at how he’s handled the columns - just a few strokes of white and brown, suggesting form without getting bogged down in detail. That dripping paint and visible pencil? It’s like he's saying, "Here's the raw stuff of painting. The texture of the paper, the way the pigment settles; it all becomes part of the story." Notice how the violet brushstrokes in the foreground hint at steps, leading your eye right to that door. Sargent reminds me a little of Manet in his ability to capture the essence of a scene with incredible economy. It's the kind of art that celebrates the joy of seeing and the messy, unpredictable beauty of the painting process itself.