Vincent Van Gogh
It is New Year’s Eve. Everywhere are posts about the year in review or hopes for the coming one. It’s sort of obligatory. A mini rite of passage as the old year fades and the new comes to birth. So instead of jumping on that particular bandwagon today, I decided to write about painting. A voice from the past, words from the present and a hope for the future.
For myself, I have always scribbled and drawn. One of my earliest memories is of a very childish picture of Pearl Bailey in Carmen Jones… chalk on small blackboard in Grandad’s parlour. Of course, the film was in black and white on our TV back then, but the colours were vivid on the blackboard… I remember I drew the dress blue. It had felt blue.
I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.~ Vincent Van Gogh
I lack skill in painting, being self-taught and coming to it late. But that’s ok. It frustrates me when I cannot capture the vision in my dream with the accuracy I would like, but it really doesn’t matter…
If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. ~ Vincent Van Gogh
Van Gogh is a hero of mine in many ways. There is an absoluteness and honesty in his work that I never understood until these past few years. I always saw the energy. You don’t see it in reproductions of his paintings, not really, but stand a foot away and see how his hands and fingers have dragged the paint, see the brushwork and urgency in the strokes… and the vibrancy of the painting jumps out and grabs you by the heart. Look at many of his canvases and you can hear people saying ‘a child could have painted that.’ In some ways, I think, a child did.
Wheat field with crows by Vincent Van Gogh
Children have a clarity of vision, an uncompromising inner honesty in their view of the world. Life is vivid and multi-coloured to their eyes. There is nothing mediocre, everything holds the possibility of magic and adventure. Children have a passion for life we often lose as we move into adulthood. They know how to dream.
For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. ~ Vincent Van Gogh
The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent never lost that childlike passion. Read his words and his paintings and you see that. More importantly, you feel it. For a moment outside of time you can touch the fire in his soul as he stood beneath the stars or the blazing sun. That fire is in and around us if we care to look. Too often we forget…
One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way. ~Vincent Van Gogh
Or perhaps we are afraid. Afraid to be different from the crowd, to draw attention to ourselves, to actually see with our whole Self and not through the grey lens of normality. But somewhere, buried beneath the layers of personality and social graces, I think we all share the same yearning:
I wish they would only take me as I am. ~ Vincent Van Gogh
We try hard to be what we feel we should be, often not daring to chase the dream of what we could be, or constrained by an accumulation of ‘circumstance’ we let go of the dreams. We stub our toes on the rocks of life and the visions of possibility fade into the background. Necessity and compromise drown the hopes we had and each crossroads can lead us further from the goal that may have glowed like a beacon in the soul… but by keeping that vision vividly in mind we can, by moving forward, find another road towards it.
Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again. ~ Vincent Van Gogh
It doesn’t take a lot, sometimes to reignite the fire in the soul. I had always dreamed of painting like my grandfather. But then there was dance until that future was lost to injury. Then life, and children… and then a friend gave me some paints….and I had time on my hands… and emotion in bucketloads as my husband’s last illness coloured our lives. So I painted. And found that flame again.
Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. ~ Vincent Van Gogh
Mulberry tree by Vincent Van Gogh
Sometimes there is a defining instant that can open up a whole world of possibility. It may be so small you barely notice it. But if you are awake to possibility and the fire of dreams you will see it, as someone said to me the other day, like ‘the one bit of reality’ a grey landscape. All we need, when we see these motes of reality is the courage to make them part of who we are.
One must work and dare if one really wants to live. ~ Vincent Van Gogh
So as a new year dawns, I wish for you the eyes of the child, filled with hope and magic, wonder and possibility. I wish you dreams to follow with your heart, and a heart open to experience and joy, to life and to Love.
Happy New Year.
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
Your clarity, insight, wisdom and truth in this post speak volumes go me. I knew house be brilliant but now I know. Lovely post, well thought, well written. My the new year bring health and happiness to you and your family.
I’ve only “followed” for a day it two and you’ve already graced my table. I look forward to the year to come
Namaste
Benjamin
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Thank you, Benjamin. That is a lovely thing to read.
Happy new year to you!
Namaste
Sue
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Thank you for reminding me of Van Gogh, he’s always been a favorite and though I’ve read biographies I’ve never read his own writitngs. This impells me to do so. Happy New Year to you and yours.
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His letters are the best source for knowing the man a little. You can see them online though I am old fashioned enough to prefer a book 🙂 http://vangoghletters.org/vg/
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Who edited the book you have?
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There is a set of books available via the website I posted the link for, but they are extremely expensive! This one is pretty good though:
Letters of Vincent Van Gogh
Publisher: Magpie (28 Jan 2010)
ISBN-10: 1849014655
ISBN-13: 978-1849014656
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Thank you for being so very helpful.
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My pleasure 🙂
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Great post, I must just read it again it has so much in it.
I’d like to wish you a very happy new year, and happy blogging in 2013!
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Thank you, Lois. It’s nice to know when someone reads a post.. twice is an honour 😉
Happy new year to you and yours also! 🙂
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Reblogged this on charlesbassey's fragments and commented:
The warmth and simplicity which Sue exudes in her writing made me consider this piece a befitting tone to begin the New Year. It is truly a year with variegated colours and opportunities and I invite you to come embrace the mosaic. Enjoy. Happy New Year.
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Reblogged this on Simon Sundaraj-Keun.
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I Nominate you for the Liebster Blog Award. Please accept & oblige.
Please the link below & follow instructions.
http://ajaytao2010.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/liebster-blog-award/
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Thank you! I will do so… I am most touched.
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not at all my dear friend all my award are basically meant for you friend because I just want share with you all my dear. you are so humble
Love you my friend
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Pingback: Liebster Blog Award « Ajaytao 2010
That was beautiful and a great insight to an adored genus. I love writing and the best time I had was few days delving more into his world writing two poems about him and his work. He is my favourite artist and maybe we are not able to have only one, but he is close. Just recently I watched a documentary of how one researcher solved the mystery of his ear and the trauma surrounding that horrific time and incident. Such a lot was opened up to us in doing that, and those revelations are expected to change slightly a familiar story and thus the affection and admiration we have for him, or the reasons which led to all of that, with more factual representation – it was a concern that maybe what drove us to love him through his work will be altered somewhat, but I cannot see this happening.
Again, fascinating, and I wish you well with your artistic endeavours.
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I don’t think anything will tarnish our love of his work or our affection for him. People make too much of a mistake to equate any artist or writer with their work, though you can learn a lot about the one through the other.Vincent’s paintings are still the most incredible I have ever had the privilege to see in person…they sing on the canvas, and move me to tears every time, leaving me as breathless in wonder as a child. No biographical details will ever change that 🙂
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You are very lucky to have seen such a thing.
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I have indeed been lucky. I didn’t understand his work till I saw it close and saw how he moved the paint on the canvas and the traces of his fingers and his passion.
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Loved reading this write up. A new fan of Vincent Van Gogh is born 🙂
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His paintngs are very much alive 🙂
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This is a brilliant post. I mean it. Beautiful and insightful writing. I became a Vincent fan when I learned how to play and sing “Starry Starry Night.“ The song capture’s Vincent’s essence and your post expresses Vincent’s spirit so eloquently. I’ve also seen his work in person at MOMA in New York. Enjoyed reading “Dear Theo as well.
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Thank you, David. That song was always a favourite of mine too. And still moves me to tears, knowing his story.
I’ve been fortunate to see Vincent’s work in London and Paris… and I always end up with a glad smile on my face and eyes too full to see clearly. That is his gift.
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Sue was so wrong about her lack of skill in painting, but so right, always, in her insights. (K)
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😉
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A wonderful read, Stuart. Thank you and happy new year!
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And to you… 😉
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I wish you had mentioned at the beginning that you were reblogging Sue’s post. It really threw me for a haunting loop. I am in no way being critical to you or anything about this, just saying that I couldn’t understand how she was posting something today. ❤️ A lot of people miss her. It is nice to see her writing again.
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I have been re-blogging Sue’s early posts both here and on The Silent Eye website for some time now… 😉
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Ah, they just never came up on my feed. Nice to keep her memory alive!
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😉
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