Ecology and Art + Culture

Ecology and Art

Art + Culture + Ecology

Daniela Escobar

Love of Nature

Pure aesthetic?

We live in a world of constant change. Everything is moving; everything is changing, and time is an important factor because these changes. Time is everything and is the only factor that will makes us learn from our past, to live our present, and make a better future. Learning from our mistakes is the first basic rule to start to create a better future. Sometimes we just forget about important things that life has given us. Nature has been one of these beautiful, mysterious and marvelous things that life had offered to us. Nature is everything that surrounds us and is natural, something that mankind is unable to create or produce. We have to go beyond nature, beyond our nature and appreciate it.

Since the Industrial Revolution, nature has become just a factor in our lives, and its huge and significant importance has being losing its value. The reasons are not clear. If we have the knowledge and awareness that nature brings benefits into our life? We have, as it were, taken nature from nature and created and artificial nature. Something that we are going to still be benefited from and still love; but is this love of nature just pure aesthetic?

Claude Monet was an Impressionist painter who spent most of his life creating beautiful works of art representing nature. Most of his paintings bring us a deep feeling of serenity and peace. This artist was known as the poet of nature, and we can observe on his work of art the context and the vision that Impressionist artists had from the natural environment.

Impressionism was a beautiful movement that was started in France between the late 1860s and the 1900s. The combination of its vivid colors and the different movements of the brushstrokes create a feeling and emotions that we can still experience and enjoy by looking at these remarkable pieces of art today. Claude Monet's works of art are focused on the dynamism of light that he was creating by the use of vivid and bright colors. Monet also gives a visual background for the vibrant natural world that Impressionist artists create. In this way, he shows the connection between nature and human beings that we can observe reflected on some of his paintings, showing his idealization of nature.

Monet spent part of his life in Normandy, France, which is one of the reasons why his inspirational source was coming from the natural environment. "I was born undisciplined. Never, even as a child, could I be made to obey a set rule. What little I know I learned at home. School was always like a prison to me, I could never bring myself to stay there, even four hours a day, when the sun was shining and the sea was so tempting, and it was such fun scrambling over cliffs and paddling in the shallows." http://www.artcafe.net/ah/monet/index.html

"Cliff walk at Pourville" is one of the works of art by Monet that represents the connection of human beings within nature. This painting contains a variety of emotions a deep feeling of serenity and peace. By just looking at the painting, we can imagine being there and hearing the sound of the breeze, the smell of the salty water of the ocean and being in contact with nature. We can imagine admiring the sea and the mountains, the sunny day and the blue sky. The connection between human beings and nature is special and unique. Nature is us and is within us.

"Cliff walk at Pourville" presents two women walking a walk on the cliff. They are in contact with nature, with the plants, the sea, the natural environment. This painting was created in 1888, and Monet is showing and reflecting a day when two people went for a walk and enjoyed this connection, and peace within nature.

Claude Monet as an impressionist painter created an energy, a mood, and a movement by the different and rapidly brushstrokes that we can observe on the painting. The horizon line, the division between the sky and the sea gives us an idea of infinity, leading us to go beyond the borders. This painting captures a moment that we all should admire and enjoy. The simple contact with nature, its peace and serenity, is something we cannot give up. Yet, most of us do.