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Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
This is apparently my favorite year from Van Gogh’s repertoire. The sunflowers used to blow me away to the exclusion of all else and I do still love them dearly but as my eye for art has matured (LIKE A FINE WINE), I’ve come to realize that the irises (which were my grandmother’s favorite flower) are mother more subtle and more sad; if you’ve ever watched the life cycle of an iris, you know that they start to die almost as soon as they bloom. Not as sturdy as sunflowers, the stems have a difficult time taking the weight of the flower and they bow and lean within a few days, touch the ground a couple sleeps after that, and ultimately lay down after only a week or so. Van Gogh catches them at their peak but also captures their delicacy, as he does with so many of his subjects, just as I remember my grandmother, who died of breast cancer when I was five. I have two strong memories of her: baking cookies and the day she died at home.
I didn’t expect to like this one as much as I do. I woke up at 1am and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I watched The Pitt and then got up, painted this, and finally went back to sleep. Imagine my surprise when I saw it in the morning and loved it. I guess sometimes we do out best work uninhibited with exhaustion and insomnia in the middle of the night.
Golden Paints acrylics on 7”x9” canvas board.
This is apparently my favorite year from Van Gogh’s repertoire. The sunflowers used to blow me away to the exclusion of all else and I do still love them dearly but as my eye for art has matured (LIKE A FINE WINE), I’ve come to realize that the irises (which were my grandmother’s favorite flower) are mother more subtle and more sad; if you’ve ever watched the life cycle of an iris, you know that they start to die almost as soon as they bloom. Not as sturdy as sunflowers, the stems have a difficult time taking the weight of the flower and they bow and lean within a few days, touch the ground a couple sleeps after that, and ultimately lay down after only a week or so. Van Gogh catches them at their peak but also captures their delicacy, as he does with so many of his subjects, just as I remember my grandmother, who died of breast cancer when I was five. I have two strong memories of her: baking cookies and the day she died at home.
I didn’t expect to like this one as much as I do. I woke up at 1am and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I watched The Pitt and then got up, painted this, and finally went back to sleep. Imagine my surprise when I saw it in the morning and loved it. I guess sometimes we do out best work uninhibited with exhaustion and insomnia in the middle of the night.
Golden Paints acrylics on 7”x9” canvas board.
