Seascape 1905

Henri Matisse painted this Seascape with oil on canvas, and it's just bursting with his signature, joyful approach to color. It’s a party of mark making! Look at how the paint is applied: thick, juicy strokes that don't try to blend or hide. You can almost feel the brush dancing across the canvas. The land has a dry feeling to it, not because of the colors, but because of the density and directionality of the marks. The blues in the water give the opposite feeling. I always feel like Matisse invites me to see the world through his eyes, where color and form are liberated from mere representation. The spots of pure color create a shimmer, an aliveness. Those dark greens are repeated elsewhere but here they feel like just the right accent in a cacophony of sensations. You know, it makes me think of Bonnard. He had that same knack for making the ordinary feel extraordinary. In the end, what matters is how a painting makes you feel, right? And this one, well, it just makes me happy.