Pot of Geraniums 1912

Henri Matisse made this painting of a 'Pot of Geraniums' with oil on canvas, and the colours are like an explosion of joy - pinks, greens, purples, all buzzing with life. I'm picturing Matisse, maybe in his studio, just playing around, letting the colours lead him. It’s not about making the perfect geranium, but about feeling it. He doesn't seem to want to replicate nature, but rather to create a harmony of colour and form. There's something so direct in how he applies the paint – flat areas, bold outlines. I can almost feel the brushstrokes. The paint looks thin, like watercolour, and the way he’s divided the space into planes, you know? Other artists such as Derain were exploring fauvism at the same time, so perhaps they all were encouraging each other. It feels like a conversation about seeing, about how we translate the world onto a canvas. It’s loose, it's free, and it invites you to see painting not as a skill, but as an encounter, an exchange, a way of feeling the world.