The painter most like you

You are most like Monet

The same view looks new to you whenever the light changes

Water Lilies · 1906

Your nature

You are a chaser of light

This is a playful reading of your nature, not a scientific personality test.
The grey lines below come from Monet's real life and work.

Your strength
You can see the same thing as if for the first time, again and again. Boredom rarely finds you.
Monet painted the front of Rouen Cathedral more than thirty times, in changing hours and weather.
When you shine
When you work outdoors and on the move, your head and heart both clear.
He fitted out a small boat as a studio so he could paint on the river.
What wears you out
Being tied to one spot for long, or asked for the same answer every day, wears you down.
In his last years cataracts made it hard for Monet to tell colours apart, and he had eye surgery in 1923.
How you work
Rather than one perfect piece, you try several quickly and compare them.
He set up several canvases at once and moved to another one when the light changed.
With other people
You like time alone, but you light up among friends who love the same things.
As a young man Monet went out to paint in the open air with painter friends such as Renoir.
How you rest
Watering flowers or looking after a single plant may be just the rest you need.
At Giverny, Monet kept gardeners and tended his flower beds and pond.

Why Monet?

You are the kind of person who goes back to look at yesterday's view again today. So was Monet. He painted the same stacks of wheat in a field many times: in the morning, at noon, at sunset, after snow.

Monet liked to paint outdoors rather than in the studio. Light changes fast, so his brushstrokes were quick and short. The name 'Impressionism' came from his painting Impression, Sunrise.

In his forties Monet settled at Giverny, where he made his own garden and pond and put a Japanese-style bridge across the water. He went on painting the water lilies in that pond until he died.

If you can find today's own colour in an ordinary day, you have Monet's eye.

Kindred painter · Opposite painter

Among the eight painters,
who is near and who is far

Kindred painter
Hokusai
Even after finishing something, you say 'not there yet'
You share a habit of returning to one subject from new places and at new times. Travel together and you may never run out of things to say.
See the Hokusai result →
Opposite painter
Degas
When others watch the stage, you watch what happens behind it
The Degas type trusts a composition worked out indoors more than the light outside. Each of you will find the other's way fascinating.
See the Degas result →

Spend a day like this painter

Today, like Monet

Three small ideas. Trying just one is enough.

Photograph the same view from your window once in the morning and once in the evening, and compare.
Walk for twenty minutes in a park or by water and notice what colour the shadows are.
Water one plant and look at the light on its leaves for just a minute.

Claude Monet

Step into Monet's paintings

While you are here, stand in front of a painting for three minutes.
For each one, here is where to look first.

Water Lilies1906
How to lookFind the sky and the tree shadows reflected in the water between the lily pads. There is no bank anywhere in the picture.
Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer)1890–91
How to lookCompare the orange glow along the edges of the stacks with the violet shadows on the ground.
Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare1877
How to lookLook at the black body of the engine and the white steam spreading under the roof. The people are only a few strokes each.