Monet : I perhaps owe my painting to flowers

We have just come back from the trip of a lifetime, going to Singapore, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Thailand.

Most definitely the highlight for me was going to Versailles and Giverny.  You could not get two more contrasting destinations, and in between we had a wonderful lunch at a little mill nearby.
Versaillles is all about excess, from the enormous gardens clipped within an inch of their lives, to the extravagant bedrooms and gold front gates.  Giverny is  a garden so painstakingly put together it looks as if Monet painted it onto the landscape. 

That's real gold on the gates and on the building inside! 

Its difficult to see, but there are several flowers here, first the dark, almost purple/black leaves make the backdrop, then the bright orange with yellow centre on the left, and the light orange/yellow on the right, in between you can just see the fine lines of the pink/red flower spiralling up to pull it all together.  Monet was a genius.

Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand,

 as if it were necessary to understand,

when it is simply necessary to love.
.............. Claude Monet


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