Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’ is beloved around the world, a radiant example of French Impressionism and the glory found in nature. But their path from the artist’s yard to museum walls was one paved with obstacles, perfectionism—and a lot of gardening.
— Read on mentalfloss.com/article/63929/15-things-you-might-not-know-about-monets-water-lilies

Written by Kristy Puchko via MentalFloss, I came across this yesterday & decided this was a great piece to insert in my inspiration related reblogs while I continue formatting my own images and new posts for my blog 😊

Monet, as is obvious from my recent painting sales, has long been one of my main inspirations, along with Renoir, Pissarro, Carot, and many of the other artists of that era. In my late teens and early 20s, it was Salvador Dali and his dripping clocks. I even did an homage to Picasso in my very early 30s I entitled Picassa, lol!

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Kristy has quite a roll of arty “Things You Might Not Know…” on her MentalFloss about page, like, about Leonardo DaVinci’s Last Supper, about the movie “Elf” (one of mine & my son’s fav’s), about the movie “Love Actually” (one of mine & my wife’s fav’s), about Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”, and about Dolly Parton! Generally all the arts, from theatre to music to books to movies to visual work, and more!

This post itself was interesting to me beyond just being about Monet. Though I knew quite a few things in the post already, there were several I wasn’t.

For instance, I’m fairly familiar with the opening rounds of the days and years of Impressionism and their impact then and to now on art and artists, and really all people, since we’re all influenced by all our senses, what we hear, what we do, how we move.

And I was kinda familiar with the ending years/decades of Monet’s life and work, but hadn’t thought through or had pointed out as clearly, the impact the huge water lilies he painted had on art, including now, after his initial falling-off-favor the first few decades after his death. But I’ll leave that for you to read and discover and decide if it surprises you a bit too 🙂

I think the only point I’d quibble with is #10: Monet becoming a perfectionist near the end of his life, having only let a few of his works be seen publicly, the rest destroyed. Seems I’d read he’d done that a few times over his lifetime, burned whole stacks of paintings he felt weren’t good enough. Though he evidently also kept some he “touched up” and “completed” as many as ten years after he’d set them aside – something I’m tempted to also emulate with a few pieces myself, lol!

Either way, a fascinating relatively short piece with lots of eye candy and mental, uh, floss? 😊

Thanks so much everyone!

Adan

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