Paint

Hey, I just realized that my last few posts have been a little bit whiny. What's with that? And! I haven't really talked about any of the cool stuff that's been going on. I briefly mentioned going swing dancing one night, but I didn't tell you how beautiful it was.

Let me try and do a better job of expressing it.

That night of swing dancing was a little bit like an impressionist painting. A lot like an impressionist painting. It was late and dark and there was a huge big band set up on a stage at the edge of Place Hotel de Ville and all the cafes had rearranged their tables to make way for a dance floor. There were lights strung up around the dance space so it was warm. The night was warm. The people were warm. I wore heels and my black swing dress. I didn't know how legit the dancing would be, but after about 20 minutes and 3 dances, I decided I needed to rush home and put on my dance shoes.

The best way for me to show you what that night was like is to take some of Van Gogh's advice. He said one time to his friend and fellow artist, Paul Gauguin, that maybe it'd be a good idea for painters to work together on one painting, each adding what they do best to create the perfect picture. So. That night was a combination of Van Gogh's night and lighting and Renoir's people and location.





That's what swing dancing in Aix was like.

I've also been seeing a lot of the places that inspired Van Gogh. Last weekend our school took a trip to St. Remy. The assaylum where Van Gogh spent the last 2 years of his life is there. This is where he painted Starry Night. Pam, the woman leading the trip told us how to get to the room he stayed in and then how to get to the gardens he painted. All of it has been preserved so it's basically the exact same way it was when he was a patient there. I booked it to his room while everyone else wandered around the gift shop so I could have a moment alone with Vincent's spirit.

He painted the view from his window minus the metal bars.

I saw his wheat fields. His olive groves. His sky and sun and stone wall and sunflowers and mountain and cypress trees and church steeple and his room. It gave me an idea as to how much of his color really existed in the earth for the rest of us, and how much of his color only existed in his mind.
I have always loved Van Gogh and the more I learn about who he was, how he worked, and what his life was like, I appreciate him and his art more and more. I've started reading some of the hundreds of letters he wrote to his brother, Theo, and his passion for everything moves me.

Next Friday my class is taking a trip to Arles where he lived and painted the cafes. I want to spend the week reading his letters so that when I get to Arles I can have a better idea of what he was experiencing while there.