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Claude Monet

1840–1926 · Impressionism

Monet painted outdoors, fast, chasing light before it changed. Critics mocked his loose dabs — one sneered that his painting was just an 'impression'. Monet kept the insult as the name of a whole movement.

Impression, Sunrise
Impression, Sunrise, 1872
Water Lilies
Water Lilies, 1906

Your brush now makes short broken dabs that follow your hand, each one shifting a little warmer or cooler — colors sit side by side instead of blending. Paint what light DOES, not what things are.

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The sun rising (or setting) over waterA garden — flowers as dabs of lightThe same scene twice: morning and evening light
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