Monet, the Influencer

Grainstack, Sun in the Mist, 1891, Claude Monet, French 1840-1926, oil on canvas.  Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

The interpretive rendering of light, atmosphere and weather through the use of color, application, and fragmentation, was particularly interesting to Signac.  In one of twenty-five paintings of the Grainstack, Monet painted many different canvases of the same image at various times of day, from the end of the summer in 1890 through the spring of 1891, and in different lighting to capture many different interpretations of the same subject matter.   It is the task of the viewer to coalesce the colors, often resulting in shimmering movement and reflections.  The involvement of the viewer in the interpretation of the painting is what first drew Signac to the work of Monet and influenced all of his work from their first encounter.

While Signac traveled extensively, particularly when he could sail, Monet painted the majority of his subject matter within three miles of his home.  In fact, the grainstacks were right outside his door - literally.

This brings up the very important matter of selecting a subject for a painting.  What causes one artist to travel miles away from home to capture just the right image, while the other just makes a ten degree turn and begins the next painting.  Or the artist who paints passionately in the morning and returns to the exact same location in the evening to paint the sunset (think Van Gogh.)  Does it matter if the focus of the painting is the image or the light, or the reflection of light, or the contrast of light and dark????

What is the focus of the majority of your work?  Is it the subject matter, the colors, the contrasts, the line, the texture???  What part of an image must to be present to be selected and your topic?  What part of an image are you always willing to add "artistic license?"  Art historians seem to think they know a lot about the answers to these types of questions - I wonder if they are right?