When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you - a tree, house, a field....Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives your own naive impression of the scene before you.
Claude MonetThe only merit I have is to have painted directly from nature with the aim of conveying my impressions in front of the most fugitive effects.
Claude MonetIt took me time to understand my water lilies. I had planted them for the pleasure of it; I grew them without ever thinking of painting them.
Claude MonetEveryone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.
Claude Monet