Whatever you create, practice is the key to perfection.

There's no greater example of this maxim than the artist Claude Monet, one of the founding fathers of French Impressionism.

Born in 1840, Monet's art was as much a lesson in life as it was in creativity.

In 1862 he went to Paris and took painting lessons. While there, he got to know Auguste Renoir, Sisley, Bazille and others. But Monet's concern was to reflect the influence of light on a subject and he soon turned away from studio painting in favour of painting in the open air.

The public and art critics ridiculed these new paintings that looked so different from any conventional art style at that time.

But Monet persevered.

Slowly, the public and critics started to recognize the value of impressionism and interest in Monet began to grow.

In 1890 Monet began to paint systematically the same subjects under different light conditions. The first subjects were the haystacks behind his house.

At the end he had painted 25 different versions of the haystacks.

He said:

"I want the unobtainable. Other artists paint a bridge, a house, a boat, and that's the end. They are finished. I want to paint the air which surrounds the bridge, the house, the boat, the beauty of the air in which these objects are located, and that is nothing short of impossible."

After 1907 bad eyesight and rheumatism made it more difficult for Monet to paint, but he continued. His greatest project was centred on his garden with a pond of water lilies and a Japanese bridge. In 1926, at the age of 83, he finished the last great challenge of his life - a commission by the French government for 22 mural paintings of water lilies.

He actually died that year.

The lessons that Monet shares with us are these:

- You must believe in yourself and your work even when your talents are ridiculed.

- You need to practice, practice, practice, to become a master of your craft.

- Even in adversity be determined and focused to complete your life's work.

Know that the impossible is possible!