Purple Rain

Purple Rain Original Oil on Stretched Canvas 1016cm x 1016cm

Werner visited Monet’s Garden some years ago and was so inspired by what he saw he has created a series of paintings showing waterways that he has discovered in his Australian travels.  Like Monet, Werner paints in the outdoors but completes the painting in his studio.  “Monet’s Garden, an abundance of images he put on canvas- the serenity and Monet’s feel for nature left an inheritance for all who came after him”, states Werner. Oscar-Claude Monet is beloved for his series of oil paintings depicting water lilies, serene gardens, and Japanese footbridges. The French painter manipulated light and shadow to portray landscapes in a ground-breaking way, upending the traditional art scene in the late 19th century. He also learned about oil painting en plein air painting, which later became a hallmark of his style.

Over the years, he hired gardeners to plant everything from poppies to apple trees in his garden, turning it into a beautiful, tranquil place for him to paint. Finally wealthy from sales of his paintings, Monet invested serious money into his garden. He put a Japanese footbridge across his pond, which he famously painted, and he imported water lilies from Egypt and South America. Although the local city council told him to remove the foreign plants so they wouldn’t poison the water, Monet didn’t listen. For the last 25 years of his life, he painted the water lilies in a series of paintings that showcased the plants in varying light and textures.

Original painting by Werner Filipich