Happy Birthday Van Gogh

Happy Birthday to my favorite artist, Vincent Van Gogh!  Born this day, March 30th, 1853.  Van Gogh was a Post-Impressionist who was known for his impasto swirls of bold colors.  I was fortunate enough to be able to attend Denver Art Museum’s special exhibit Becoming Van Gogh a few years ago.  The collection spanned the time frame of his artistic journey from the realistic style seen in works such as The Potato Eaters to several still life paintings like Irises and Roses and many of his self-portraits.  To date it is my favorite exhibit that I have seen (though I may be a little bias).

One of the parts of the exhibit that I found very interesting was a portion that showed how Van Gogh emulated the works of other great artists.  One of the best ways to learn is to recreate the steps of the initial artist.  In the spirit of emulating great artists, here is a painting that I created a couple years ago after my Denver trip of Wheat Field with Cypresses.  The original was painted in oil however my version is in acrylic.  I found out how much detail went into the original painting as well as how difficult Van Gogh’s technique is to replicate in acrylic.  Happy 164th Birthday Van Gogh!