The Monet Exhibit

meeting a bigger than life Monet as we entered

it's not easy getting timed tickets to the Monet exhibit in Denver. Then driving there, finding parking, walking distances to the actual door, etc. We did it, and on our appointed time were handed devises to listen to curators discuss the work. It took over two hours to see it all!

ahhhhh

the show was so large, organized by places he lived and worked, and styles. I loved one of these early paintings done from a high vantage point in Paris. Most painters of the time used a lower viewing point.  Aren't the frames magnificent? Note all the people, and mood, and pale colors.

I noticed he chose to almost always center his horizon line, to mute colors, to manage to add details while being abstract, and to mix pure color on the brush so that each dab of paint blended but not totally the colors.

I'm including detail shots, and was lucky enough to get very close to see brushstrokes. The guards were not like the ones at the National Gallery of Art in DC.
Monet was fascinated by nature, and frustrated by working outside painting in real time as the light is constantly changing his view of subjects.

He went out in all weather, always observant, blurring the lines between object and reflection, using almost the same intensity of color for reflection as object, so that the sky was often seen under the horizon only in the reflections.

forcing the viewer to choose where the object is and where the reflection is

The detail in each leaf, the composition was entrancing in this one to me

I admit I loved the ones painted in Italy.
I stopped a long time to absorb the gentle field scene with these children

this one fascinated me for the sun, painted with a strong spiral of thickened paint

The last galleries were of his time in Giverny, water lilies and bridges. He began to paint for an hour, then take breaks. He obsessively designed and redesigned his garden, even rerouting a river despite the objections of his neighbors.
He was a man driven to paint. He shared a love of light with his contemporaries, learned from them, respected them. He spent a lifetime exploring his unique vision and style, persisting in art despite his father demanding that he go into business.

He so inspired me that I bought a small set of acrylics to try his dab technique. I watched painters on youtube as they explained how to paint like he did. I like more intense color but I want to learn from someone who recognized the subtlety of color and light, and how the human eye mixes colors on a canvas.
this was one of two videos I watched:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpmdlAi0IUY

LINKING TO
https://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/