In the 1840s, replacing pig bladders and tacks used to store oil paints, metal tubes for oil paints and portable easels enabled painters later called the Impressionists to leave the studios to paint outdoors in "plein-air" capturing short clips of nature on canvas that created an impression of the moment, full of life and color.

An object drenched in light at one moment may be overshadowed the next.  When painting in plein-air, the painter must work quickly to capture the scene or his impression before it has changed or disappeared.   To do this, the brush strokes must remain loose.  

Concurrent with improvements in paint was the new invention of the camera, a discovery announced in 1838.  The camera was able to freeze an instant in time.  Photography has developed into its own art form.   Many painters rely upon photos as reference for their paintings.  For those who attempt to simply reproduce the photograph, one asks, "why bother?"  The camera with its mechanical averaging of contrasts cannot replace the relationship between the object, the eye, the mind and its expression.

I enjoy the style of the impressionists, who did not strive to paint images with the "realism" that one might expect from a camera, but painted with quick stokes with a brush loaded with vibrant and often unmixed colors, leaving it to the viewer’s eye to mix the colors and stokes, to create a notion of a specific and fleeting moment of time colored by both the painter and viewer’s impressions.

Without light there is darkness.  "God said, 'Let there be light'...and God separated the light from the darkness."  Light chases darkness away.  Of the teacher who by all accounts has most impacted the world, it was said, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness can never overcome it."  Objects become visible.  But light does not stand still.  Monet wrote, "For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but its surroundings bring it to life—the air and the light, which vary continually....  For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives objects their real value."  With the changing light, even the colors are not fixed but change with the light and their surroundings.

Unlike many impressionists and modern artists, I do not agree that reality is subjective, being defined by what the individual sees. Truth is not subjective, yet personal and subjective sensations and perceptions are varied and reflect our creative individuality given to us by the Master Creator.  The paintings are not an "exact" reproduction of an object for its own sake. We create because we are created. The Creator is the benchmark for truth–we all see reflections of that truth.  Theologians call that common grace.  The Heavens do declare the glory of God. I feel his pleasure when I create.

More Musings - Does Truth really Matter?