Everyday Canvas

"Sunflowers"

Prompt: Famous Painting
In the story/ movie Mary Poppins, Mary and Dick Van Dyke stepped into different paintings to explore. What famous painting would you step into and explore for fun?

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You know what? I love sunflowers, their height and openness, edible seeds, and happy colors. And I really like Van Gogh.

The problem is Van Gogh painted a whole slew of sunflower paintings and to pick one as a favorite is impossible and add to this my greedy nature that likes abundance and numbers...So, I'll start with his "Sunflower Field" and see how it goes.

When I look at the painting, I see a vast field of sunflowers, their golden petals reaching towards the sky under the warmth of the sun. Then, the expressive brushstrokes gives the flowers a dynamic quality, almost as if they are in motion. Motion is another one of my hangups in all arts, by the way, and here, the sunflowers are alive, dancing and swaying to the rhythm of nature. I feel like dancing with them in their color palette of yellow and gold, and I feel uplifted inside their radiance, thanks to Van Gogh's excellent manipulation of light and shade.

This painting, therefore, brings a sense of joy and life and admiration for the beauty of nature. Yet, still in nature, some kind of a melancholy exists, as it does in this painting, too, for to the left of the field is a huge cone shaped fir tree in darkened greens and to the far right a couple more such trees near a house. I think this shows the internal struggles we all face even if we try to see the brightness of life, as did Van Gogh.

Then, I also have to mention Van Gogh's sunflowers in a vase, that painting is titled as "Sunflowers." It makes me wonder if those flowers were from the field in the other painting I mentioned above, the "Sunflower Field". As we all know, the painter's brushstrokes suggest both a unique vision of zest and vitality and his inner storms. In this painting, too, the sunflowers are not just botanical subjects but they are symbols of life, beauty, and hope.

No wonder then, as soon as I read this prompt, Van Gogh's sunflower paintings popped up in my mind, pointing to my own appreciation of the sunflowers and human nature in its entirety.


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