I remember looking through picture books as a child and feeling mesmerized by the swirly goodness that is Monet. A decade later and a continent away, that admiration transformed into adoration at Paris' Musée de l'Orangerie, where eight enormous water lily paintings wrap around two round rooms. The effect is breathtaking to say the least, and I left determined to learn from this master of capturing water and light. Though a sad replication of said master, my feeble beginnings on three small canvases (about the size of sheets of paper) gave me a better feel of what it must have been like to create magic on such a large scale.
