“I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.” ~Vincent van Gogh

I can’t say I’ve always been a Vincent van Gogh fan. For a long while, I thought his paintings unrealistic and childlike. The last 6 years of art study and experimenting with paint myself, I have a fuller appreciation for what artists go through to create their vision of the world around them, no matter what medium they use.

Last year, I decided to try my hand at painting sunflowers…Vincent seemed to love painting them…so, I thought I would take a shot at it. I painted about six different acrylic sunflower paintings on canvas, but this one is my favorite.

I could see why Vincent loved painting them…they are a happy flower, full of texture and color. And I was happy painting them!

 Summer ended, and so did the sunflower paintings…but painting like Vincent never left my mind. This past week, I had the opportunity to paint from a photograph. I decided to try my hand at painting something with bold and colorful brushstrokes (ala’ van Gogh) from a realistic landscape. I wanted to see how he could translate what he saw, into the wild and vivid paintings that he left behind. Besides loving his sunflower paintings, I am also intrigued by his landscapes, especially the ones with planted rows, farm houses…and huge yellow suns in the sky.

This is my little nod to van Gogh…a 12 x 12 acrylic painting, A House for Vincent.

He’s been gone a little over 120 years now…but he is still inspiring artists, just like me, to dream of painting…and to paint their dreams.

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This painting is now in my online shop, and is available here.