I’m battling a cold and don’t feel like I have much to share today but I did want to show this piece, Flower Beds, from Vincent Van Gogh. It’s not one of his better known iconic pieces but whenever I come across it, it makes me stop and look. It’s from early in his career and is painted in a more impressionistic fashion than his later, more signature works with their bold strokes of vivid color. This piece seems to be a bridge between his influences and the style that he later adopted as his own, going from the darkness of the past as represented by the cottages to the new, colorful strokes that are the flower beds.
I like seeing that transition, almost can feel how Van Gogh was taking on his own voice at that time. Seeing things with his own eyes for the first time. Becoming the Van Gogh we know now.
I don’t know why I mention this piece today. I was thinking that I don’t often mention Van Gogh as an influence even though I consider him a large one. I think I try to avoid invoking his name simply because I hear so many painters list him as their primary influence and seldom see the energy or passion in their work. His work had an incredible accessibility and drew such an immediate basal reaction that it makes him an easy, romantic choice as an influence for many. I guess it’s a fear that if I come out and say it, that I’ll be lumped in with the posers when I would rather just have my work speak for itself, away from any comparison.
As it should be.
But how do you not like the guy’s work, not feel inspired by his need to constantly move forward in his desire to express the rhythm and feeling of the world around him? How can a painter not want to capture the essence of his singular voice?
Redtree Times 