Each year, around this time of year the weather fluctuates. We begin to transition out of our hibernated winters into a blooming spring season, and there’s that ultimate battle of cold versus warm fighting for real estate in the atmosphere. One moment you could be wearing a puffy coat, gloves, and earmuffs, and the next day you could be outside in a short sleeve shirt with sandals. Allergies begin to flare up from the impending pollen, and Claritin-D becomes everyone’s best friend.
Besides the weather, a new season delivers the hope of fresh open-air opportunities. As it gets warmer, the days are getting longer, and it introduces a plethora of outdoor choices that you couldn’t and wouldn’t try in the winter because it was way too cold. You begin to take that evening constitutional walk around the neighborhood to feel that warm breeze, right before the sun settles in for the night. You may enjoy an outdoor dinner, spark up the grill and trade the crockpot meals from the winter for some zesty salmon and corn on the cob in the spring.
It’s not that winter and spring are opposing enemies. Our geographic regions are transitioning from one season to the next. You may be coming out of a frostbitten winter and going into a fluctuating spring, or it may be your cruel hot summer or crisp leaf fall season approaching. For me, spring is coming and as I travel down a new pathway towards a new season I must bid adieu to another winter.
Soon the leaves will begin to sprout on the trees, and those lush green leafy nature parks will look alive again. Cherry blossoms will begin to bloom, and various colorful flowers will begin to sprout from the ground. I’ll be outside sketching bees on flowers (from a safe and non-striking bee distance) and looking forward to adoring beautiful gardens in the great outdoors.
Oscar-Claude Monet was a French painter considered to be the founder of Impressionism for the 19th century, and often painted landscaped scenes. He was concerned with capturing light and natural forms (Biography.com) in his works of art.
One of his paintings that I adore is entitled A Pathway in Monet’s Garden (Figure 1). Monet painted this view of his garden at his home in Giverny (France), and this oil painting speaks life to his purpose and what indelible mark he wanted to leave.
The entire painting is seasoned with textures, colors and tones that blend well, and you could see his earthy raw talent through the use of contrast along the pathway to his front door. There’s so much surreal depth along the pathway, and the shadows cast a feeling of serenity. The purple irises and the red flowers fringed along the path adds charm to the quality of his work, and the overhanging trees outlines Monet’s desire to see how light affects landscape scenes during different times of the day. Look at the use of brushstrokes throughout the painting. Monet painted not only exactly what he saw, but also what he felt.
Figure 1 – A Pathway in Monet’s Garden (1902) (Claude Monet)
A Pathway in Monet’s Garden by Monet (Illustration) – World History Encyclopedia
As you study Monet, ask yourself what path you will paint in your life. What hobbies are you going to start? What risks are you going to take? What opportunities are you going to grab? What open doors are you going to finally walk through, and which doors are you going to leave shut? This is a time to draw a new path for a new season in life. What will you draw?
PixsMe 
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