Seascape 1906

Henri Matisse made this "Seascape" with oil paint, and what strikes me is the pure joy of process. It's like he’s saying, "Here's what a wave looks like, here's what the sun feels like," all through color and touch. Look at those blocky marks in the foreground. Are they rocks? Are they water? They’re really just joyful daubs of paint, right? Matisse is showing us how he thinks and feels about a seascape rather than giving us a photo-realistic copy. The paint isn't trying to hide itself. Instead, it's thick and juicy, with each stroke so visible, so deliberate. I think of someone like Milton Avery when I look at this. Both artists share this love for simplifying forms into these blocks of color. It's about finding the essence, the feeling, not the perfect representation. This is what painting is for. It's not about answers but a conversation, an ongoing experiment.