‘Red Vineyards’ - Vincent Van Gogh

I confess, I haven’t always been an admirer of Van Gogh, but the more I see now the more I see to enjoy. Not so much what he chooses to paint—which is little more than another peasant scene in the manner of Millet—as the depth he achieves with some few very coarse brush strokes.

He’s a painter in three dimensions, experimenting with what paint can do to make two dimensional paint give a bold three-dimensional image.

I love the sweep of the trees away from that golden orb hanging ominously above the ensemble; the slight changes in hue of the coarse pant stroke that effortlessly delineate the depth of field; the people who quietly emerge to (eventually) dominate the scene; the feeling that one can sense the earth’s curvature going on beyond the horizon; the reflections on the pathway leading to … somewhere; the house (the abode of man) that quietly competes with that golden orb to dominate the composition.

The Ultra Orange blog recommends you sit in front of this painting for six minutes to discover how it affects you. Worry not—they also have some suitable music to play while you gaze.