Sunflowers
Van Gogh, Vincent. “Sunflowers”.1888. Oil on canvas. National Gallery, London
As I was passing though the airport in Amsterdam on my way back to Istanbul, I came across a small kiosk from the Van Gogh Museum selling books and objects devoted to the painter’s work. I visited this museum on a school trip when I was a teenager, and was so moved by the artwork, that I cried when standing in front of the famous Wheatfield with Crows. Naturally, being 15, I got embarrassed, but the colours were so alive and the thick way Van Gogh layered on the paint captured the light in the room in such a way that when you move from one end of the painting to the other, the wheat looked as though it were really blowing in the wind. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.
Van Gogh, Vincent. “Wheatfield with Crows”. 1890. Oil on canvas. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
So when I got home to a hot, sticky Istanbul, the next morning I looked for a Vincent Van Gogh documentary on YouTube to watch with my morning coffee. This BBC documentary about his famous Sunflowers, is an interesting mix of biography, artistic techniques, and inspiration, and I thought I’d share it with you:
Did you know that in the summertime our school is surrounded by thousands of yellow sunflowers?
………………………………………………..
The Private Life of a Masterpiece: Sunflowers. By Russell Davies. Dir. Lucie Donahue. Perf. Narrated by Samuel West. BBC, 2004. Web.