Upon entering the museum for the very first time, I was immediately drawn to James McNeil Whistler's painting "Sea and Rain: Variations in Violet and Green" (1865). It is an oil painting on canvas portraying a person walking along a foggy beach. With its delicate veils of color, the sea and shore are conveyed through subdued horizontal bands of thinly applied paint and are seen through an obscuring screen of rain and mist. Due to the simple subject matter of this work, and the specific manner in which Whistler chose to paint with oil on canvas, the expansive shades of lightly colored sky, ocean, and beach stuck out like a sore thumb. All of the other paintings surrounding it were either other landscapes, done in much darker and bolder tones, or were of a seemingly religious nature, almost always incorporating or making reference to the Virgin Mary and Jesus. In such a fashion, Whistler's painting stuck out among the others and I felt its presence as if it was calling to me. .
I simply could not take my eyes off of it. As I pulled up a chair and sat down in front of the painting, my mind and body became overwhelmed with tranquility. It was absolutely incredible to recognize and be able to physically and emotionally experience the power that this particular piece of art exudes. The sky immediately captivated my attention, and soon lured me into the power of the painting. Its pale shades of blue, white, green and purple were perfectly juxtaposed to the ocean's muted blues, greens, and browns. Furthermore, the beach was painted as a huge expanse of pale yellow or beige. Interestingly enough, the tide appears to be high, again hinting at the very nature of this rather murky beach day, but it is difficult to determine the time of day. The mist and high tide leads one to believe that it is morning on the Normandy coast in Trouville, the town that greatly inspired his paintings in which Whistler lived during the summer of 1865.
