Water Lilies, Reflections of Weeping Willows (left half) 1919

Claude Monet made this oil painting of water lilies and weeping willows in France at some point in his life. It’s just a left half, a fragment, and I find that so interesting. The textures are so alive in this piece. You can almost feel the cool, damp air and the stillness of the water. Look at the way Monet builds up the layers of paint, particularly in the reflections of the willows. It’s like he's not just painting what he sees, but also how he feels. See how he uses these vertical strokes of greens, yellows and whites, to build up a sense of light filtering through the leaves. It makes me think of de Kooning, actually, both of them using these gestural marks to capture a fleeting moment, a feeling of being in nature, but filtered through the artist’s own sensibility. Art isn't about capturing reality, it is an ongoing experiment.