Show me the Monet

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Show me the Monet

May 19, 2019 by Mike Powell

During a visit yesterday to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia, I was reminded of my favorite artist—Claude Monet. During the last thirty years of his life, water lilies (Nymphéas in French) were the main focus of his artistic production. One of the museums that I most love visiting is the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, because it houses eight massive water lily murals by Monet in two specially-built oval rooms. It is incredibly peaceful to just sit in one of those rooms, surrounded by those amazing paintings.

I was delighted and a little surprised yesterday to see that some water lilies were already in bloom. There was a lot of vegetation surrounding the pond in which the beautiful flowers were floating, so there were some limits to my ability to compose my shots. Still, I am pretty happy with the images that I was able to capture.

Perhaps you will find yourself as captivated by the water lilies as I was.

Posted in Art, damselfly, Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography | Tagged Canon SX50, Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, Monet, Musée de l'Orangerie, Nymphéas, Vienna VA, water lilies, water lily | 14 Comments

14 Responses

on May 19, 2019 at 8:56 am | Reply joyroses13

Lovely! I do enjoy them as well, thanks for the pictures.
- on May 19, 2019 at 9:09 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. There is something really peaceful about these simple flowers floating on the surface of a pond.
  - on May 19, 2019 at 10:28 pm joyroses13
    
    Yes, peaceful indeed. That museum sounds great to visit. We were in Paris once but didn’t go there. Didn’t know about it. There is just so much to see in Paris!
on May 19, 2019 at 10:05 am | Reply diannmeynor

Beautiful!
- on May 19, 2019 at 9:09 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Diann.
on May 19, 2019 at 11:58 am | Reply Dan Antion

These are stunning, Mike.
- on May 19, 2019 at 9:08 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Dan. I will be back soon to my normal birds and bugs, but flowers had a hold on me too from time to time.
on May 19, 2019 at 12:33 pm | Reply Eliza Waters

These are truly splendid shots, Mike, beautiful subjects!
- on May 19, 2019 at 9:08 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Eliza. I am always entranced by water lilies. There is an aquatic garden in Washington DC and one of the highlights of the summer for me is visiting it to see not only the water lilies, but also lots of lotus flowers.
on May 19, 2019 at 5:10 pm | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

Thy’re beautiful things. It’s easy to see how someone could be captivated by them.
on May 19, 2019 at 8:01 pm | Reply Ellen

These photos are positively enchanting! I love, love, love the last one and I’m surmising that Benjamin will too. Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
- on May 19, 2019 at 8:41 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  In many ways, Ellen, the last one is my favorite too. I chose to put it last only because it did not fit as well with my Monet theme. 🙂
on May 19, 2019 at 9:18 pm | Reply Ellen Jennings

Very nice with the big lily pads, and sweet with the damselfly!
on May 20, 2019 at 3:02 pm | Reply Molly Lin DutinaMolly Dutina

Gorgeous! I need ot get to our nature center and check out the lilies there!