Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Learning from Van Gogh



One of my favorite things to do when I need some creative inspiration is to look through a book about one of my favorite artists. "Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings" is treasured on my bookshelf. Two things have stuck with me from this book.

1. Vincent Van Gogh created a complete painting every single day towards the end of his life. Great big, bold, Van Gogh brushstroke, too.

2. While that proliferation is commendable, he did not hesitate to repeat a subject. In fact he did it over and over again: people, landscapes, and still-life paintings. One of them, Sunflowers, broke sale records back in the 1980s.

Try this - Look through the 4 paintings from the above mentioned book. Red and green predominate in all of them (Van Gogh loved to use contrasting colors), but see how many things you can count that are different. Let me know what number you come up with. I see roughly 6 differences in each picture.

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