Water Lilies 1908

This painting is one of the many water lilies that Claude Monet painted, using oil on canvas. Imagine Monet standing by his pond, squinting in the light. What’s he thinking as he dabs and strokes, trying to catch the light on those floating flowers? Maybe he’s not thinking at all, just feeling, translating the shimmer into blues, greens, and pinks. There's a kind of circular rhythm in the painting, the brushstrokes swirling like the water itself. The paint is layered, thick in some spots, thin in others, creating a dance of light and shadow. Monet, like all of us painters, was in conversation with the art of the past but was also pushing towards something new. He was trying to capture a feeling, a fleeting moment, and that’s something other artists have been trying to do ever since. Painting is not about certainty, it's about the joy of not knowing.