Monet: Waterlily Pond, Green Harmony
Visit Location: Detroit Art Institute
Photo found online (shows details better)
Description: This Monet has harmonizing colors that softly work together to paint a swift and calm outdoor day. There is a bridge throughout the center of the scene that drags the darkness from one side of the painting to the other. The strong greens intercede with yellows in a way that your eyes follow the strokes smoothly, as if the grass is blowing in the wind and the air from the water below the bridge is cool on your face. The water is unseen, however, almost entirely since it is covered in beautiful lily pads. Colorful and blooming, they cover the surface of the water, making it nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding ground. Beyond the bridge is a weeping willow, pulling your eyes once again to the center of the painting, the bridge.
Why I enjoy it: I enjoyed this piece so much because I felt that it perfectly embodied the day in which it was painted. I can feel what is going on in the painting, I feel the water, the wind, the overwhelming power of being truly relaxed. I also like that while there is so much nature going on, it is cut through by this simple but vital bridge. A bridge is how you get from point A to point B. The artist literally carries your eyes through the painting on the trusty bridge.
Technique: Clearly color is a huge technique in this painting. While it is actually very colorful, it seems simple, blended almost. The longer you look the more and more you realize that it is riddled with different colors, popping hues and contradicting schemes. All of this is to work together to make you relaxed but intrigued. Another important technique is the brush strokes. You travel along the strokes, sliding down into the painting. A photographer cannot do this as well with their camera, but a painter has the ability to tie your eyes to a piece of the painting and paint a line for them to follow.
Interpretation: As I mentioned, I feel that the bridge is very important. I feel that this relaxing day could be just like one of any other. It is calm, soft and happy. The bridge is not a disturbance to the day, just a needed level of transportation. I feel that the artist wanted us to dive into the water with him, swim across the water lily's, float across the bridge and roll in the grass beside him. The painting as a whole is easy on the eyes but more importantly it is intriguing. The artist didn't want you to look on and move past, he wanted to keep you for a moment and steal a second from you life to live with him in this dream land.
Judgment: I love this painting, but I am also a fan of Monet. He was very absurd for his day, not only creating a new painting style but developing it quite spectacularly. Additional to it being a Monet, this painting paints a world that no longer really exists. I feel as if by looking at it, even just for a second, you can dive back in to a simpler time where a bridge was the only thing running through utopia.
Inspired Image:
I chose this image because it also has a bridge running through it, and the water below does resemble brush strokes, but most importantly, I felt it embodied what today's world looks like. I come from a small town so finding a location like Monet's painting is actually very possible. I am aware that there are still small trinkets that do not look as industrialized as this photo, but this is the reality of our world. We all have phones, we all have cars, we are all running a million miles a minute. This photo is beautiful to me, but it is also fast. It shows the strong and hard sky scrapers, the sky is blue, but powerful, the bridge is not bent and sweet but straight and to the point. Even the water below is not kissed by blooming flowers but rushing as if it too is late. This picture is the modern version of the Monet, it is our broken Utopia.
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