Brushstrokes Can be Everything

Above painting: Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds, 1890, by Vincent van Gogh

One of my art instructors, artist Daisy Schenone, recently challenged me to experiment and see if I could paint incorporating some of Van Gogh’s style, using swirling, jagged, or short choppy marks to create a sense of movement and emotion. I do like that about Van Gogh, but my own paintings use a more brushed out technique, except on occasion in specific parts of a painting. Nonetheless, I took up the endeavor, and I was doubly challenged to copy a Van Gogh painting that not only had a variety of short, choppy strokes, but that had a very limited color palette, something that is often foreign to me! I tried the venture, using Van Gogh’s "Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds.” The process of making a lot of little short strokes was oh-so-painful, and the result was nothing short of an electric yellow wheatfield under an ominous black sky. But persist I must, as I am always interested in learning. I will post a future attempt at more short strokes with another Van Gogh selection, which is yet to be determined!