L’idylle en bleu 1979

Marc Chagall dreamed up ‘L’idylle en bleu’ with oil on canvas, and just look at that dominant blue! I wonder if he knew how to make the colour himself, or if he had to order it in? You can see the layers of brushstrokes building up to create the whole image. It’s like the painting has emerged through a process of feeling and intuition. It’s easy to imagine Chagall standing in front of his canvas, adding layer upon layer of blue, with dashes of red and green. Each stroke must have been carefully considered, but also spontaneous. You can see it in the surface, which is really built up. That brushstroke, there - see how it swoops down and around, creating a feeling of movement and energy? It’s like the whole painting is in motion, constantly shifting and changing, and so are we, the viewers. I really see him in this painting, a fellow artist. It reminds me that we’re all in conversation with each other across time, inspiring each other to be more creative, more imaginative, more human.