Revised News from K. Miller Watercolors

Painting in Monet's Garden in Giverny, France

It was the dream of a lifetime for me, spending one glorious week last summer in the little French village where Claude Monet painted his famous water lilies series. Seeing an exhibit of these room-size works back in the 90's in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art paled in comparison to actually walking the grounds where Monet's brushstroke met canvas over 100 years ago to create masterpieces that were unlike anything ever seen in the art world.

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I gained a new respect for the incredible beauty of Monet's work after experiencing my first attempt at "en pleine aire" painting, trying to capture the essence of these breathtaking gardens while painting on site as I battled the elements - wind, bugs, and the ever-changing lighting.

Each evening after the grounds were closed to tourists, our class had full reign of the gardens and pond. Once within the gates we'd scatter, each with loaded cart going from spot to spot in search of the perfect Monet-like scene to paint. It didn't take long for me to find the perfect spot with the perfect lighting - the beautiful Japanese bridge that formed a wonderful composition of color and shapes set off by clusters of pink flowering water lilies (photo above). Eager to begin painting, I immediately began to unpack my gear. It was a dream come true and I was filled with the reverence and awe this moment deserved . . . that is until I looked up and saw my perfect painting composition fall into full shadow from the huge surrounding willow trees. And this is when I understood Monet's frustration with working in these incredible outdoors that both enchanted him and drove him crazy, and I fully realized what an incredible master painter he truly was!!

In order to understand how revolutionary Monet's paintings were for turn-of-the- century Europe, one must realize that this desire to take painting out of the studio and into the open air in order to capture the colors and lighting of the moment was a new concept. It was totally contrary to the rules and expectations of the long-existing school of European art. In addition, by the 1880's, Monet's approach to presenting his subject matter was foreign to that of any other artist at the time, as his portrayals were almost abstract in nature. The compositions of his Giverny pond with its water lilies often contain no sky or land, only water. They provide an intimate view of the water's shimmering surface, showing reflections of sky, clouds and their shadows, and often an occasional willow frond floating down from the top edge. As Monet wrote, "These landscapes of water and reflection have become an obsession." He further said, "It's exceedingly hard work, and yet how seductive it is! To catch the fleeting minute, or at least its feeling, is difficult enough when the play of light and color is concentrated on one fixed point, a cityscape, a motionless landscape. With water, however, which is such a mobile, constantly changing subject, there is a real problem, a problem that is extremely appealing, one that each passing moment makes into something new and unexpected. "

Claude Monet's fascination with water lilies and water effects led him to the famous serial studies of this beautiful flower. A 1909 exhibition contained a single series of 48 paintings, Les Nympheas, all depicting the differences of the subject between morning and evening, sun and shade, and every possible effect of light at every hour of the day. This was not Monet's first serial study, however, as he explored this idea as early as 1889 while painting haystacks in the Normandy countryside. Initially he thought two painting would be enough to capture the changing light upon his subject, one for overcast skies and one for sunny weather. But he soon realized he would need many more to record the many changes in atmosphere and light, so he instructed a helper to fill a wheelbarrow with as many canvases as possible and cart them out to him in the fields.

It is clearly evident when seeing this Master's work how important light and color were to him and how tremendously successful he was at capturing their essence. He put it simply when he stated, "Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment. . . The most important thing is to know how to use the colors." How fortunate I feel to have been immersed in this Master's amazing artwork, and to have experienced the explosion of color and light for myself in Monet's Garden.

Click here to see paintings from Monet's Water Lilies series