His Work, a Song, a Sonnet
Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch post impressionism painter. Prior to deciding upon the path of an artist, he tried several occupations. His attempts were a teacher, a preacher, a book seller and an art dealer. Even though his art career was only ten years long, he was extremely prolific in producing paintings during that time.
His art work is known for his gorgeous sense of color and the long, sensuous brush strokes. One of my most memorable moments of viewing some of his work was a planetarium display of some of his works. I was blown away to see images of a single painting splashed across the large planetarium dome. Generally when I think of an art work being greatly enlarged, it can lose clarity and interest. This certainly was not the case. It appeared as if each individual brush stroke had nuances of color that were unique to the nearby strokes. It literally sparkled with such a beautiful sense of color!
Below is a moving video of many of Vincent Van Gogh’s masterpieces, accompanied by Don Mclean’s epic song, Starry, Starry Night. This was a favorite of my students who enjoyed pointing out pieces they recognized by this genius painter. May you find joy in the wonder of this remarkably prolific artist.
The arts can be particularly healing, not only by sensing the creations of others, but also by finding yourself within arts of your own.
I close with one of my sonnets.
Vincent Van Gogh
Wide skies of lemon yellow, brilliant blues
with twirling, swirling, textured, twinkling spheres;
Small, sleepy steeple nightly nestled woos
a world indeed in need to calm its fears.
The fringed and frenzied, flowers kissed with sun
Imbued in butter, gold and apricot -
Do soothe our savage hearts when day is done
through amber painted petals, peace is wrought.
His knotted, gnarled, twisted trunks of trees
Seem mimicry of cruelty to him -
as storm of mental illness did not please
but made him feel he was out on a limb.
Impassioned painter, prisoned in his mind,
Set free God's beauty for all human kind!
Copyright 2011 Lyrical Iowa, Linda M. Wolfe
I hope you learned a few new things about Vincent Van Gogh!
Here are some of my other posts of famous artists you may enjoy. Michelangelo Inspiration, Michelangelo – Reach and Look Up!, Leonardo da Vinci, The Mona Lisa Effect, Picasso, ERASE GRIEF
