Kathie -N- Vinnie

  A recommendation from my dear friend and Santa Barbara native Janice Ingrum, sent me on a Saturday adventure up to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art to catch this show- "Through Vincent's Eyes- Van Gogh and his sources".  This beautifully curated exhibit featured 20 pieces by Van Gogh along side art of his contemporaries and literature of the time, to site what may have influenced is style.  Described beautifully on the museum's website ,  "By juxtaposing celebrated artworks by Van Gogh with works by the many artists he admired, the show seeks to foreground both Vincent's indebtedness to and radical departure from the art world of his day. The exhibition also taps into Van Gogh's literary imagination by displaying first-editions of novels by Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Leo Tolstoy and Edgar Allan Poe to conjure up the fictional worlds that enflamed Vincent's inner eye."  Van Gogh is known for his rich use of texture in his paintings a...

Researching the works of Van Gogh has taken me down quite a few fun rabbit holes this week, starting with “the movies.” There are a handful of really interesting bio pics about Van Gogh, so I started with the classic, “Lust For Life”.     “Lust For Life”   is an Academy Award winning film released in 1956, directed by Vincente Minnelli (yes Liza’s dad!), starring Kirk Douglas as Vincent and Anthony Quinn as artist Paul Gaugin. Based on the novel by Irving Stone, the film received 4 Oscar nominations and Quinn took home the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.   It tells the story of Vincent’s life from his early 20’s when his desire to follow his father’s path into the ministry brings him to the coal mining towns of southern Europe, where the suffering of the impoverished residents inspired him to draw them so he could share their plight. It follows thought his move into painting, his lifelong struggles with mental illness and his inspirations that helped him d...