Water Lilies

I’m a bit obsessed with Monet’s water lilies.  I spent many pages gluing paper to try to get an interpretation in collage that captured the colors and feeling of some of the paintings.  I finally hit on the grid, which became the basis of my first Sketchbook Project “Art I Like”.

My latest Sketchbook Project circles back to Monet.  It’s a poetry-themed one, and I thought to do haiku, and of course, to illustrate it.  I have been reading a lot of traditional Japanese haiku, and one thing a master would sometimes do is to throw out a first line (like “moon on the water” for instance), then do variations with his students.  I enjoying seeing the subtle changes they made.

Traditional haiku uses nature as its focus.  So:  “Water Lilies”:  haiku variations with grid-based collages inspired by Monet.  This will eventually be digitized in total on the website (https://www.sketchbookproject.com/), but it isn’t there yet.  In the meantime, just search Kerfe on the site and you can see my other completed projects.

Nina and I saw a wonderful show of many Monet water lily paintings a few years ago.  Nothing replaces the actual experience of standing in front of the work itself.  If you ever get a chance to see one:  go, go, go.