I'm in fine fettle and fired with a desire to paint!

Hiya everyone,

Now I know I haven't posted in a while but that's due to me researching a lot for my Contextual Study...
So the quote from the title "I'm in fine fettle and fired with a desire to paint" I had taken off Brainy Quote from Claude Monet since he was the artist I had chosen and considering its the exact approach description I take on board when I paint. So last week we started to develop in the way we paint and make a response to an artists work that we had picked beforehand.
So during my research I had picked out Monet's Lillie's series, Haystacks and Springtime :) I find that these were a good choice as they are a more diverse way of expression and just also because these are my favourite paintings.

The Lily Pond - Claude Monet



I like the way Monet presents his colours more direct like he is capturing the exact moment to what he was painting. Although the use of colour is extensive you cannot suspect that there are 30 different pigments in this painting which I find extraordinary, the purples and foggy whites portray the reflection of the sky so much more delicately that its like he's expressing his mood through his range of brushwork and colour. Also the mark making is much more enhanced (on a close up good quality photograph) that makes the rest of the background look almost surreal and visionary.

My interpretation:

The colours and techniques I have used are mainly watered down acrylic and watercolour. The techniques in which I have applied the paint is varied between wet on wet and mixed, and then revolved into being applied by other materials such as sponge, brush, smearing, and pattern. I can think of one artist that uses the same techniques that I have used in some parts of my painting which is Lena Kurovska

She too is a modern impressionist modern working with paintings of landscapes, still life's and nature.

What makes Claude Monet's work so beautiful and why it has affected people all these years is explained by this principle:



 "All beauty is a making one opposite, and the making of one opposites is what we are going after in ourselves"

These opposites of the vague and definite, the uncertain and the tidy, the persistent and the changing are a tremendous matter in every persons life. Monet didn't use the vague to hide, but to show the beauty of reality.

 

Its like his work has the tendency to slip from one mood to another, somewhat like the foggy outcasts on his paintings. It communicates with me personally as I've loved his work ever since I was introduced to him at a young age. It reminds me of the subtleness of a quiet happy life.