“Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.” ~Claude Monet (14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926)

Monet and his Garden – 11 x 14 inch acrylic on heavyweight Bristol paper

I’ve long admired this artist…for his use of light and color. Also, for his courage in going against the norm of his day, where most artists painted in studios with darker tones, not in the bright light of day, and out in the open…en plein air. Monet and his impressionist contemporaries set the art world on its ear. At least he lived to see the world come to appreciate his way of seeing, his way of using paint.

I was thrilled to paint this portrait…for a man who lived years ago, who gave artists (then and now) the courage to paint their own way. 

It’s not easy painting a master artist. There are lots of thoughts that go through your head, about having the audacity to paint a well known figure of the art world. The portrait went through many stages…there were challenges. But once I painted the eyes just right…it was as if he looked back at me, to proclaim the portrait finished.

Monet has taught me many things. But most importantly, that it is necessary to love the beauty around me, and the moments I am able to paint. And for that, I am grateful.

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