Looking at Monet

Steve likes all sorts of books.

Novels.

Nature. Even cell biology.

He also loves looking at art and reading about artists. I brought him a book of Monet's landscapes, together with photos of the same places so he could see how artist and photographer can have such different eyes (I suppose the book assumed that the photographs were mere records of the actual landscape, as a comparison for what Monet created).

The book had lots of text, that I missed because Steve reads so fast -- I just looked at the images. But I glimpsed some of Monet's letters home to Alice. I think Steve will remember how hard it was for this splendid artist -- how hard the art was, how often he got discouraged, how much he had to work and struggle to get his vision onto the paintings. It is good for Steve to understand how often even regular life can take a lot of heart.

Here is what Steve wrote: “I like how Monet saw the world and made art for everyone to understand light and color. I wish to see his art directly. I want to know how he made his art.”

Often when we look at art, Steve will point to the sky as his favorite part of the painting -- he loves the light and color. This time, we watched the water surfaces with Monet.