Waves Against The Shore 1911 - 1912

Edvard Munch made this painting, Waves Against The Shore, with oil on canvas, maybe in the 1890's, but who knows? What a feeling this has! You can sense the cold, the light, the water... all of it. Look at the brushstrokes, how they curve and swirl to give form to the water. You almost feel the movement, right? You can tell that Munch wasn't interested in capturing the scene realistically. It’s like he wanted to put the sensation of being there on the canvas. I can imagine him standing there, battling the wind, trying to get down what he felt, not just what he saw. What’s so cool about painting is that it’s not just about making a picture. It's like, how can I make a feeling into a thing? You see this in a lot of painting from that time, that feeling of something real, of a real person trying to get something out of themselves and onto the canvas. It's inspiring to see how artists keep talking to each other across time, and across their paintings.