Let’s celebrate Claude Monet!

Claude Monet (1840-1926) is known as the founder of French Impressionism. He was also a gifted gardener. His success as an artist gave him the opportunity to own and cultivate a large and visually extravagant garden in Giverny, France. Though most famous for his water lily pieces, he also painted many other sections of his beautiful surroundings during the last 30 years of his life.

This garden piece is a study in Impressionism. Monet here uses the signature techniques of this movement – quick, short brush strokes, vivid colors and his impressions of flowers and light. His genius of making subjects obvious in unclear, undetailed masses allows our own imaginations to also paint impressions over his.

This artist does not take us by the hand for an intellectual or analytic tour of his property. Instead, he sets us free in his concepts of garden and beauty to find our own of color, shape, form, texture, and light. He said he hoped this painting would bring peace to others.

Monet suffered the effects of painting outdoors in bright sunlight later in his life and was legally blind by 1922. We give thanks for the visions he left us at the price of his own.

Dear God, may we see the world through eyes filled with the artist’s love and originality. May we notice and notice and notice again the beauty that can anchor us to our deepest and most honest beliefs in you, O God, our creator. Amen.

In gratitude, faith and hope,