Lilies are still a very popular painting subject even after over a century of being sensationalized by the works of Claude Monet. I was fortunate that my in-laws had a house on a lake in Florida that was full of water lilies, which saved me another trip to Monet's estate in Giverny, France. I was drawn to this scene by the clouds reflected on the water surface that gave the illusion that the lilies were in the sky.