A Personal Tribute to Claude Monet’s 1868 "Etude de Ciel" in Pastels

Anyone would think that my journey into impressionism took shape in a gallery.  Actually it all began in the quiet mezzanine of my college’s English Club, where a large, forgotten art book on French Impressionism lay nestled among dusty hardbound novels. It was there, in that unlikely hiding place, that I first encountered Claude Monet’s luminous world. The pages opened like a secret door, and I was utterly enchanted. I had always known I could draw, but I never imagined that my artistic genesis would be tracing the footsteps of Monet.

The discovery sparked a creative fire.   After a year, I went on to stage over a dozen art exhibitions, in celebration of Filipiniana themes rendered in the impressionist tradition. I believed my brush danced with light and color, echoing the fleeting beauty Monet captured so effortlessly, although I couldn't say the same with mine, but I was thankful some of them were sold.  Though my path eventually shifted toward organizing musical theater productions for elementary schools, the spirit of Monet never left me. His influence became a quiet undercurrent in my teaching, passed on to students who would later become accomplished artists in their own right.

There is something ineffable in Monet’s work that other artists tried to imitate.  Monet's colors were undoubtedly extraordinary.  His style was a kind of visual poetry that captures life in a split second, where joy and melancholy coexist in the shimmer of light. Even in his pastel pieces, the colors fracture and fuse with breathtaking speed, revealing the emotional pulse of a moment just before it vanishes.

Until now, I had never seen this particular pastel work from 1868. To witness it feels like uncovering a precious artifact from an archeological site. I’ve long suspected that there are still undiscovered Monet works scattered across time, waiting to be unearthed, and this piece affirms that hunch.  This rediscovery feels like a whisper from nature herself, and a soft kiss from the past. 

This pastel work on a dusky sky cools with a quiet fire as it soothes the soul.  Monet seems to be offering serenity instead of a spectacle: a gentle conversation with the fading day, a meditation on stillness before the stars emerge. It’s a moment suspended between warmth and coolness, between farewell and renewal.

I am deeply grateful for Mother Nature, for giving us Monet, who had kept on praising her eternal beauty with every stroke of his fingers.  And of course, I am joyful that there are emerging impressionists in my own country who continue his ethereal legacy, as true-blue artists who accidentally found themselves spellbound by a glimpse of lights and shadows in his masterpieces.