A new project and Vincent Van Gogh

Irises, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, May 1889. Vincent van Gogh. Getty Center.

Just started on a new project and I was thinking of blogging about progress but, my goodness, it's a messy process. And I'm never sure they're going to work out.

Sometimes these projects take months and I almost give up. Vincent Van Gogh and Edward Hopper, on the other hand, were a joy to work on. Van Gogh's brother preserved hundreds of letters that Vincent wrote to him. I'm grateful to Google for translating the letters used on that project.

Van Gogh is on my mind because it is a glorious iris season in northern Virginia.

What was Van Gogh trying to convey in his paintings? What's up with the crazy colors? Sometimes he ran out of paint and used whatever color he happened to have. He mentions that in a letter to his brother. That's why he painted one of his self-portraits in green. Why are his paintings so valuable today? Learn more about Van Gogh here.

The National Gallery in Washington, DC, has a wonderful Van Gogh collection. The painting that caught my attention a few years ago though is at the Met in New York. Can you imagine the conversation? "What did you do today?" "I painted a pair of shoes." Today that painting is considered a masterpiece.