Painting The Masters: Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers and Cypresses
Vincent van Gogh wrote, "Some people copy others do not. I started to do it by accident and have realized that it is instructive and also helps to calm me."
I agree with Vincent van Gogh that copying the artwork of others is instructive.
Lately, I have been copying and painting in the style of Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet:
I painted Vincent's, Wheatfield with Cypresses and his Still-Life with Fifteen Sunflowers and I just finished copying one of Monet's Nymphaeas (Waterlilies) Series paintings.
As I was painting Still-Life with Fifteen Sunflowers I became frustrated in trying to make them look like his-- I just wasn't getting it. I had the colors right as well as the correct proportions but something was amiss.
After repeated attempts to make the painting sing, the way his sings, I let the frustration come seething up and out of the brush and I attacked the canvas not even caring if I ruined the whole thing. As I painted with slashes and hacks and stabs I realized that I had reached the state with which Vincent painted. I knew this from reading his letters and accounts of his painting methods. He even called his approach "attacking the canvas"!
My copy began to work!
Consequently, I learned that it is not just enough to get it right technically but one must try to get into the mind and heart of the artist--as much as possible--to paint as they painted.
Here is my copy of Vincent van Gogh's Still-Life with Fifteen Sunflowers:
And my copy of his Wheatfield with Cypresses:
Vincent's Wheatfield with Cypresses was Vincent's favorite summer painting. He was so pleased with it that he made two copies of it. He wrote in a letter to his brother Theo, "The cypresses are always in my thoughts."
For me, the cypresses were more enjoyable to paint than the sunflowers--they seemed to hold a calm power, a dynamic restraint.
By the time Vincent painted them, in 1889, he had already suffered the first of his major mental breakdowns and was trying to keep himself calm.
I could feel all of this as my brush followed the trail of Vincent's brush about the surface of the canvas.
This week I have been painting in the style of Claude Monet and my next blog entry will be about some of the things I have learned by copying him.
I agree with Vincent van Gogh that copying the artwork of others is instructive.
Lately, I have been copying and painting in the style of Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet:
I painted Vincent's, Wheatfield with Cypresses and his Still-Life with Fifteen Sunflowers and I just finished copying one of Monet's Nymphaeas (Waterlilies) Series paintings.
As I was painting Still-Life with Fifteen Sunflowers I became frustrated in trying to make them look like his-- I just wasn't getting it. I had the colors right as well as the correct proportions but something was amiss.
After repeated attempts to make the painting sing, the way his sings, I let the frustration come seething up and out of the brush and I attacked the canvas not even caring if I ruined the whole thing. As I painted with slashes and hacks and stabs I realized that I had reached the state with which Vincent painted. I knew this from reading his letters and accounts of his painting methods. He even called his approach "attacking the canvas"!
My copy began to work!
Consequently, I learned that it is not just enough to get it right technically but one must try to get into the mind and heart of the artist--as much as possible--to paint as they painted.
Here is my copy of Vincent van Gogh's Still-Life with Fifteen Sunflowers:
And my copy of his Wheatfield with Cypresses:
Vincent's Wheatfield with Cypresses was Vincent's favorite summer painting. He was so pleased with it that he made two copies of it. He wrote in a letter to his brother Theo, "The cypresses are always in my thoughts."
For me, the cypresses were more enjoyable to paint than the sunflowers--they seemed to hold a calm power, a dynamic restraint.
By the time Vincent painted them, in 1889, he had already suffered the first of his major mental breakdowns and was trying to keep himself calm.
I could feel all of this as my brush followed the trail of Vincent's brush about the surface of the canvas.
This week I have been painting in the style of Claude Monet and my next blog entry will be about some of the things I have learned by copying him.
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