Une Rue À Arcueil 1904

Henri Matisse created "Une Rue À Arcueil" with oils, probably en plein air, trying to capture the feeling of the place. Look at how the buildings are stacked in blocks of color, and how the shadows and light are almost as solid as the buildings. You can almost feel Matisse squinting in the sun as he paints. Notice the road, how it's scrubbed with pinks and purples, which makes the intense sunlight feel even brighter. It's like he's not just painting what he sees, but what he feels. This is what I admire in Matisse – his paintings feel alive, like an ongoing experiment of light and color. Matisse wasn't shy to learn from the masters like Cezanne, and like other artists, he took those lessons and ran with them, pushing the boundaries of what painting could be. Painting is like a big, ongoing conversation between artists, each adding their own voice to the mix.