How does one get past all the hoopla and history, the myth and mystery of Monet and Hiroshige to truly experience and enjoy this exhibition? My advise is to find the least crowed exhibits, stand in front of them and just look, then go back to the gallery again and again. Each time you attend the exhibition do so with a different friend and talk about what you see out loud, and when one of the guides shepherding a group, stops in front of an exhibit, listen to their commentary. You'll easily discover the excitement and beauty in paint and print, and find links between artists and artforms.

The most obvious connection is how these artists record everyday scenes in different atmospheric conditions from unusual points of view. Monet's rendition of a misty wet Boulevard des Capucines hangs alongside the bright sunny Garden of the Princess, both are seen from above. Meanwhile his The Railway Bridge at Argenteuil is seen from below to display its pylons. These colourful French scenes connect to Hiroshige's high viewpoint in Sudden Rain at Shono, the clarity of air in Yui, Satta Pass and looking up at the underside of Bridge on the Yahagi River Near Okazaki.

Visual differences result from the media employed. Woodcut prints demand excellent drawing and design skills to create their linear patterns. Japanese prints are balanced by tonal contrasts, the play of positive and negative areas and repetition of shapes while Monet's oil paintings employ colour, space and brushwork to produce painterly patterns. Yet we can see how Monet borrowed from the Japanese masters. For example in his paintings of the seacoast Monet uses short cursive marks in many hues to depict churning water. They emulate in paint, the curved black line defining the watery spray seen in Hokusai's print Hollow of the Deep Sea Wave off Kanagawa and the hanging scroll Impressive View of the Go River by Ikeno Taiga.

I enjoy comparing the painted and printed snow scenes, in particular Monet's A Cart on the Snowy Road at Honfleur and Hiroshige's Evening Snow at Kanbara. In these works one appreciates the painter's use of warm white in the sky and cool white for the snow as well as a variety of colour and the brushwork in the 'dirty' ground snow. The mood is one of lonely quietude, the houses are closed and you just know the sound of the single horse and cart is muffled by the blanket of snow. A similar mood of cold comfort is seen in the print. Bent against the weather and greyness of the world around them, three figures, the only touch of bright colour in the image, walk with silent determination. There is a swaying rhythm to the work, one created by the play of tonal values and the repeated shape of the rooftops that echo the mountains. The major difference between print and painting here is how the perspective in Monet's scene invites us into the illusion, whereas we are held out of Hiroshige's print, expected to be observers of the surface pattern.

I shall go back to the exhibition again to look and learn even more; to rejoice in one butterfly's continued fight against the wind; to see herons huddled together on a snow covered tree composed of a single brush stroke of black ink on a silver screen; to appreciate waterlily blooms of brilliant white that float on a myriad of oil colours painted to look like translucent water; to be excited by an image of a terracotta coloured mountain, which reveals the grain of the wooden block that printed it; and to be amazed that over a century later, these prints and paintings look as fresh and as vibrant as the day they left the studio.

This exhibit tells us a lot about an era, a culture, an individual and a society. It also tells us how visual art can and should be cultural vessels that carry each generation's now into the future. When you think of art as a time machine it doesn't say much for contemporary trends of ephemeral art, self-indulgent installations and momentary performances ~ documented or not. Art that lasts for more then a week will offer future generations the opportunity to look, learn, understand and discuss our now.

Thank you to all those people, here and abroad, who worked together to make this exhibition possible.