Assiette De Fruits (Fruit Dish) 1902

Henri Matisse made this painting of a fruit dish with oil paint, sometime in his life. You can really see how he was working through the process of seeing when you look at the brushstrokes. The paint is super present. It’s thick and juicy, not trying to hide itself, but more trying to just get down what’s in front of him. There's this cool pear sitting on the table – it looks like it's been made with a bunch of little dashes of paint. It's so casual, but it also gives you this real sense of what it's like to look at a pear. Matisse reminds me of Bonnard, who also had this way of making the ordinary feel extraordinary. They both show us that painting isn't just about making a perfect picture, it’s about how we see and feel the world. And how there’s always more than one way to see the same thing.