Monet painted many subjects again and again, but every one of his series paintings is different, whether it’s a painting of a water lily or a hay stack.
In 1890 Monet wrote a letter to an art critic about his hay stacks series, saying: “I’m hard at it, working stubbornly on a series of different effects, but at this time of year the sun sets so fast that it’s impossible to keep up with it … the further I get, the more I see that a lot of work has to be done in order to render what I’m looking for: ‘instantaneity’, the ‘envelope’ above all, the same light spread over everything… I’m increasingly obsessed by the need to render what I experience, and I’m praying that I’ll have a few more good years left to me because I think I may make some progress in that direction…”
There is still a lot of work that has to be done in order to render what’s in my head, too. I’ve got something with eyes, windows to the soul. Either I leave them off altogether or I have the effective of the eyes staring directly into you. I’m making some progress…