Road trips afford a chance to explore oneself as much as anything, for it’s only in the action of displacement that realization occurs. I learn by going and doing.
‘The colour here is actually very fine; when the vegetation is fresh it’s a rich green the like of which we seldom see in the north, calm.’
Van Gogh, from the Royal Academy’s show, ‘Letters.’
Couldn’t wait to get home. South Texas should have bumper Bluebonnets this year. That special, ‘rich green.’ (‘We seldom see in the north.’)
The pen and ink, or pencil, or I don’t even know what the material was, but it was a basic pencil sketch of another famous painting, ‘Cypress Trees,’ the precursor sketch, bereft of color, had more depth and movement than the real painting.
Sister waxed poetically, and at length, about the sketches because it all clearly delineated the artistic process. The rich green comment reminded me the subtle difference in hue from North Texas to South Texas. Variations on a theme.
While I’m a big proponent of the accidental nature of art, looking at van Gogh’s sketches suggested there was planning and thought that went into the apparent accidental nature. Ruins my hypothesis, not that it matters. What that one madman did for the art world, turn it on edge, brilliant.