Water Lilies 1908

Claude Monet made Water Lilies with oil paints. The canvas is a wash of watery blues and greens, punctuated with pinks and lavenders, like he’s feeling for these waterlilies, not just painting them. Monet's probably standing there, trying to capture a fleeting moment, the way light hits the water, the way the lilies just barely float. You know, painting is a conversation – a back-and-forth between the artist and the canvas. He’s trying to capture something real, but it’s also about the paint itself, the texture and the color and the surface. Look at those little dabs of pink, how they sit on the surface, like the flowers are actually there. Monet’s painting makes me think about other painters, like Joan Mitchell, who also used color to express emotion. Artists are always talking to each other across time, riffing off each other's ideas. Painting's like that, you know? It's ambiguous, uncertain, and full of possibilities.