Monet

I attended an exhibit entitled "Monet In Normandy" at the Cleveland Art Museum today. It just dawned on me that I spent a whole afternoon at a museum and only saw one artist! That's never happened before. My dear friend, Erin Durham, asked me how my day was and I found myself trying to describe the feelings of this afternoon. Sometimes I tire after a few hours at a museum, but today was not that way. For a number of reasons I felt like I could have stayed there for much longer and not grown weary. Upon reflection, one of those reasons may have been that Monet never painted anything lifeless, obscene, crude, violent, or foreboding. He painted loveliness and beauty in a harsh world. Having learned more about his life through the exhibit, it is surprising that many of his painting are not more dark and desparing. He had an illegitimate child that his father encouraged him to abandon. He married the woman three years later, fathered a second child, and lost his wife to illness only nine years later. He remarried a woman with six children, and she too would proceed him in death.
The exhibit was organized chronologically, and it was fascinating to follow the change of scenery along with the change in style. In viewing so many paintings by one painter I gained a greater appreciation for an artist's style, and experimentation in line, texture, and color. Some of my favorite paintings were the few that would not have been easily ascribed to their creator. It was a refreshing reminder that art of all kinds comes from a creative process that develops over time, and that the best art follows after a long series of trial and error.
Each painting was unique. Each was produced with great care. Each carried a different mood, theme, and purpose. Not one was kitsch. Most had a human element that would draw the viewer into the scene: a little cottage, a bather on the beach, a farmer in his field. I felt as though I walked through the Garden Of Delights.