Riding the Tides of Time: Boats at Étretat Reimagined

Claude Monet painted  Boats on the Beach at Étretat in 1885, capturing the rugged coastline of Normandy with his signature impressionist touch. The original work portrayed wooden fishing boats resting on the shore, their simple forms bathed in the shifting light of day. The sea, though not directly visible, was implied through Monet’s atmospheric strokes, lending a quiet energy to the waiting vessels. This reimagining takes Monet’s tranquil scene and injects it with a surreal sense of motion, distorting time and perception through an explosion of texture, color, and movement. 

In this version, the beach is no longer just a static resting place for boats; it becomes a portal into a different reality where elements of nature and artistic creation merge. The wooden boats remain in the lower portion of the piece, their earthy hues grounding the composition. The familiar thatched huts of Étretat’s fishing community add historical depth, preserving the cultural essence of Monet’s original vision. However, above them, something extraordinary unfolds. 

A massive wave of swirling blue and white, resembling thick oil paint straight from the artist’s palette, dominates the upper half of the composition. The wave is not simply an artistic abstraction—it carries the fluid motion of an ocean, yet it also retains the tactile ridges of paint, celebrating the very act of creation itself. The interplay between the brushstroke and the sea blurs the line between painting and reality, suggesting that art is not just a depiction of nature but an extension of it. 

Emerging from this painted wave is an unexpected figure—a surfer riding its crest. This modern addition disrupts the historical continuity of Monet’s scene, placing a contemporary presence within a landscape frozen in time. The surfer, dressed in vibrant hues, becomes a symbol of movement, transformation, and human connection with the forces of nature. The original boats, once symbols of rest, are now countered by a figure in perpetual motion, embodying the spirit of exploration and adaptation. 

The use of color in this artwork carries deep symbolic weight. The blues and whites of the wave contrast with the warm earth tones of the beach, representing a clash between stability and change, past and present. Monet’s original palette was soft and atmospheric, while this new version amplifies the intensity of color, emphasizing energy and unpredictability. The swirling wave suggests both creation and chaos, a reminder that art itself is born from dynamic forces rather than stillness. 

As an artist, my goal in this reinterpretation was to question the boundaries of time within a painting. Monet captured a fleeting moment, but what if that moment continued to evolve? By introducing the wave and surfer, I wanted to explore how art can be in constant motion, existing beyond the constraints of its original era. The thick brushstroke that forms the wave acts as a reminder that painting is not just about representation—it is about texture, material, and the very physicality of the creative process. The paint itself becomes an ocean, the brush a force of nature, and the surfer a voyager navigating between past and present. 

The juxtaposition of the traditional boats and the modern surfer invites viewers to reflect on change. What was once a scene of waiting and stillness is now infused with action and fluidity. Just as Monet’s impressionist strokes captured the impermanence of light, this surreal adaptation captures the impermanence of time, suggesting that the past is never truly fixed—it can always be revisited, reimagined, and reshaped through new perspectives.