Claude Monet, the Water-Lilies, Paris and L'Orangerie

Our family traveled from Prague to Paris for a getaway in the West last weekend. Along with time walking along the Seine, the Tuileries Gardens, around the Eiffel Tower and Arc D' Triumph and Trocodero, and mass at the Notre Dame on Ile d'Cite, visiting the Musée de l’Orangerie in Jardin des Tuileries became the thrilling highlight for me. 

all photographs: paintings of Les Nympheas by Claude Monet from Musee l'Orangerie, Paris

As far back as I can remember, Claude Monet has been one of my favorite artists; his Impressionistic style has always resonated, deeply. Last weekend, on this first visit to L'Orangerie, my love for Monet's art has grown exponentially.

It is difficult to explain in mere words the substantive presentation of Monet's Les Nympheas (The Water Lilies) ... so I'm including several photographs, along with quotes from Monet, to better portray his masterpieces and their sheer beauty.

"It took me time to understand my waterlilies. I had planted them for the pleasure of it; I grew them without ever thinking of painting them." -Claude Monet

"My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece."

"I can only draw what I see."

"Everything I have earned has gone into these gardens." (on his gardens at Giverny)

"Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment."

"It took me time to understand my waterlilies. I had planted them for the pleasure of it; I grew them without ever thinking of painting them."

"I know that to paint the sea really well, you need to look at it every hour of every day in the same place so that you can understand its way in that particular spot and that is why I am working on the same motifs over and over again, four or six times even."

"It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly."

 

 

 

"Thanks to water, [Monet] has become the painter of what we cannot see. He addresses that invisible spiritual surface that separates light from reflection. Airy azure captive of liquid azure ... Color rises from the bottom of the water in clouds, in whirlpools."

Starting the Discussion: What art inspires you? Who is your favorite artist? Do you have a favorite art museum you go to for inspiration?

Time for Something New?

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve had the interesting task of itemizing everything in our home—toys, towels, tools—everything. It’s strange to account for the pieces of our family of five’s existence by the things we have around us in our home. Often, I thought, “This is it. This stuff defines us.” Weird. But on the other hand, it doesn’t. I am still me without all the stuff (which could lead me into a million ruminations on why do we have so much stuff, which always ends with the thought of less being really more, I think). But, as I was itemizing, and reflecting as I typed, I noticed the date on one of my first paintings—summer 2004. It’s been five years …

I still remember the day in the craft store, towing my three little boys, all under five years of age, around in their stroller, realizing I had always wanted to paint, and daring to pick out a handful of tubes of oil paints, a brush, and a standard canvas. The toothpaste-like consistency of the oils took a while to figure out, but now, after taking painting lessons from a local artist, and over one-hundred canvases later, I’m hooked. I’m confident I’ll never earn the ranks of Michelangelo, but the act of working toward expressing myself in a new way and listening to and moving toward the internal seed of a dream unique to me has set me free in ways I cannot begin to explain. To dream, and then take the steps toward fulfilling that dream, is priceless.

Why create? Why try something new? Why venture outside the box other people (or our own minds) impose upon us?

To those who have never had the experience, I find explaining the feeling of personal accomplishment impossible to quantify. There’s no other comparable feeling in the world. Moving toward the deep roots of personal dreams is exhilarating beyond description.

To those who have had the experience, there’s no need to explain or quantify … you already know.

Today is the first day of the last half of 2009. Today is a great day to listen to your heart and decide to try something new. Only you know what it is. This summer, dare to take the chance to try out a dream, and discover the thrill that follows accomplishing something you’ve always wanted to try.

Today is a great day to try something new …