Bateaux à Collioure 1905

Henri Matisse made 'Bateaux à Collioure' with watercolor, and you can just feel the sunshine in it, right? He's not trying to capture exactly what’s there, but more like the feeling of being there. It's like the pure joy of just slapping the paint down and letting it do its thing. Look at how thin the washes are. It’s all about letting the white of the paper peek through, making the colors sing even brighter. There’s a real lightness to it, a sense of air and movement. And those strokes, especially in the water, they’re so free and loose. It looks like he just flicked the brush and let the color land where it may. But it's not random, is it? You could spend hours just looking at those boats and the way they sit in the water. It reminds me a little of Bonnard, that same love of color and light. But Matisse is his own thing, always pushing, always playing. He reminds us that art doesn’t have to be serious, it can just be a big, beautiful, colorful party.