vincent van gogh ... speechless

vincent van gogh, a lane near arles (painted 1888)

at age 48 i'm still astounded and usually speechless when i look at vincent van gogh's paintings and drawings. we all have our own story to tell, therefore no artist should have the need to be envious, but i am envious nonetheless, more than i would normally expect of myself. not that i would want to paint the same kind of painting ... it goes deeper. i am looking and have been looking for a long time to paint in a similarly intense and personal way, but with a similar link to reality.

it remains utterly inspiring and at the same time daunting for me to see how brilliantly vincent achieved this in his paintings. look at the above, the incredible colours, but also the incredibly effective mix of detailing and broad brush strokes. and this is just one of countless masterworks. thank you vincent, you are the wordless answer to all those sceptical and non-appreciative of art.

street art 2: recognition, appreciation

see the one-but-previous post. [and see -of course- the wikipedia entry on street art.]

if you take the time to view the video, you might come across some very intriguing art works. i'm often amazed at what i see on the street. apart from the obvious artistry, there's a lot of hard work and dedication going into many of these works.

i don't mean this as a general tribute to every tag and graffiti-like work (because there are many less appealing ones, perhaps even the majority, i'm not keeping score since i tend to ignore what doesn't appeal).

but i would like to thank all those anonymous artists which really put in their talent, time and effort to produce their art on the streets.

you might want to read this article on street art in sweden [link is now defunct, 2014] by nicholas claude, who is also the photographer of the picture below:



the article discusses pros and contras, since many people experience street art as defacing and/or damaging of property. perhaps i will return to this in later posts. [postscript 2014: the article has been removed and is completely unfindable].