I
recently read a book on Monet, titled “Monet” by Robert Gordon and Andrew
Forge
(Harry N.Abrams, NY, 1989). That is, I actually read most of the
words as well as looking at the pictures! Unusual for me with art
books.
It is an excellent book, very well illustrated with thousands of color and
black and white prints and photographs of very good quality. The
information is most comprehensive, giving a history of Monet’s life and
works in great detail, referring to the illustrations where applicable.
It was such a long life, stretching from the early
days, when he spent so much time with his mates out painting, and getting
such wonderful results. Favorites
of mine are the water paintings, when
he and Renoir etc. were out on the river painting water, boats and
bridges. La Grenouilliere, Argenteuil and so on.
How did they get it to
look so
wonderful, putting those large pieces of paint down, making it all look so
vibrant! And the gardens, the train station, the wild coastal scenery, the
people, the haystacks!
Then as time went on, the mates sort of fell off
the perch, and he ended up in his garden at Giverny, both creating the
garden and painting it. This of course went on until the end of his life;
his great passion for painting continuing to take over his life.
Later
on, when his eyesight was failing he experienced great frustration when
things didn’t turn out as he wanted, and there were many bonfires of
unwanted canvases.
When contemplating my own art life and that of an
artist as famous and successful as Monet’s, a few things struck me. Monet
actually worked
full time at it, and went out every day painting, and
would stay at the same place painting at different times of the day and in
different weather conditions until he had actually finished that place!
And then in the garden, (which he never finished painting) he went out
after breakfast for a few hours, came in for lunch, went out again in the
afternoon, had dinner etc. and wrote letters in the evening!
Well,
what of course, struck me was that someone else had shopped for, prepared,
served and washed up after every meal! Not to mention the house
cleaning, washing and gardening. I suppose by that time he had
enough money to pay for all this!
Well, it's not exactly the same as myself is it.
How can I expect to
improve quickly when I devote a limited time only per
week to art – I’m just improving a lot more slowly!
You must admit he
didn’t have the distractions of the square plastic screens of the
television, computer, digital camera, mobile phone and microwave, and
didn’t have to answer his emails, telephone, answering machine and Telstra
101 as well as his snail mail.
I did however do a
painting - “A Quiet Corner” - recently, which may have started to
come close to the more impressionistic and free style that I would like,
and which I so much admire in Monet and all the French Impressionists.
We must all spend more time reading (or even
looking at) art books. Our own WAS library and the
Whitehorse Libraries,
in particular Nunawading, have an excellent collection, and I’m sure the
Monash libraries
do too. Happy reading!!
