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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Van Gogh, An Exhilerating Reunion

     

Another Van Gogh landscape, Farm House With Two Figures, that had escaped me when first I fell in love with him umpteen number of years ago as a kid. It's really quite a study in greens WITH THE EXCEPTION of the red oxide, or similar,  chimney. How shocking these paintings must have been in the eighteen hundreds? How boring were the  folks who called themselves art connoisseurs that they weren't exhilarated by such exuberance?  To see Van Gogh genius for yourself go to http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/landscapes.html

Stumbling into Van Gogh again woke me up.  I had to get back to my paints.  It didn't matter what I painted. I just wanted to paint something. I grabbed a photo, a little canvas panel and jumped in while Bob Seager rocked. My left leg moved along with the right to the music. It would have been a totally delightful couple of hours if I had chosen to jump into acrylics instead of oils. The little oil painting ended the session. It needed to rest, to sit, to dry. What a lucky break, so did I.

While icing away my recklessness, I returned to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterday's website and looked through  their collection.  I thought that I had seen everything that Van Gogh had painted. When an exhibit was here at the DIA, a block away from my art college, I was there everyday standing in front of each painting in awe.  I worked the show slowly, savoring each exhibit. It was a large impressive show--put together during the DIA's heyday. I was naive enough to figure I had seen all there was to see of VG. I came away from the show knowing the man could really draw and wasn't just a percoscious guy wildly tossing around brushfuls of color.  I did fall in love. (Haven't we all)?  I bought the books and devoured them months after the exhibit moved on.  Now, I discovered I have to go to Amsterdam to see the whole story from start to finish.   

This painting, an early one I'm guessing, convinced me.

After downloading the image, I couldn't find it again to get the particulars. I combed through the collection three times, but it was gone, a fluke find from the past.  What I did notice however were the great number of paintings he did with a monochromatic palette of browns-- umbra, sienna--and when you look at his paintings one after the other, you discover what I didn't see as a young girl: his palette was never extensive.  Smart move.  --And all this discovery and call to brushes came via downloading a free puzzle app. Amazing how life pushes us around. Richard Bach knew what he was talking about.

Linda's Title:  Waiting At The Station in Le Havre. If you know it, please pass it on.


Carpenter's Yard and Laundry--an amazing amount of detail for a Van Gogh


Farmhouses-in-Loosduinen near the Hague at Twight--talk about being specific with your titles!


8 comments:

  1. It looks good so what was a great artist but you also like to hugs Danielle

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    1. He wasn't a great artist then; he is now. We all should be that lucky. My husband asked me this morning when was VG's work recognized as valuable. I had no idea. I guess I'd have to research that. Off the top of my head I guessed after WW I when expressionism was provoked by the dreadful things going on. Interesting question.

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  2. I never liked , or was impressed by, Van Gogh, until I went to Amsterdam and the Van Gogh gallery. I love this early. quiet stuff. Thank you for reminding me.

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    1. It was my pleasure. A very happy accident that revved my motor. I have put Amsterdam and that museum on my bucket list.

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  3. I looked in my books but I have not found the title of the work ... I have a book dedicated to the graphic work of Van Gogh
      I like to see how he prepares the work and how then corrects him, to improve the composition and how the drawing contains all the strength of the work that follows.
    Amazing to see how (as different as our capacity) at the idea that every painter to paint takes steps quite similar, reasoning that they are, eternally, those ..
    I am moved by this fact, as we are in front of the paper or the canvas without color, and then put in this empty space our inner world.
    Painting is a part of life itself for those who loves to paint like us. Almost necessary as eating ...
    Have nice days,dear Linda.Hugs,Rita.

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    1. I'm still looking myself. Very strange. But my title will do, for I do recall that it was something like that. What matters to me in this painting is his bold pursuit of shapes, the same pursuit instructors are teaching these days. Shapes are key. Line adds distinction.

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  4. I'll have to go to Amsterdam to find the title of this painting for you, haven't I. Thank you for showing Van Goghs I did not know either! They certainly get a whole new dimension when you look at them with a painter's eye.

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  5. We have a van Gogh at the Portland Art Museum...it just gobsmacks me each time I see it. It is a brown-black ox cart (with oxen and crows). OMG it is wonderful...the draftsmanship! This is a cool post--I share your enthusiasm for "VG"!

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