"Sheaths of Wheat" at the Dallas Museum of Art

I spent a day at the Dallas Museum of Art recently. I'm a huge fan of Van Gogh, and they have an exhibition of his "sheaths of wheat" paintings as well as other notable painters of that time--peasant painting was huge in late 1800's! Who knew?

I have to say, I was more than impressed.

I had a lot of basic questions about Van Gogh's paintings--How big are they? How much paint did he use with each brush stroke? How did his paintings compare to the other impressionist painters of his day? Is there any color distortion between the photographs of his paintings and his actual paintings? What's the big deal about the french impressionist movement?

All my questions were answered.

One painting in particular that I thought was awesome was the painting by Robert Zunn called Harvest, 1860. The detail and the color were fantastic to the point where it looked surreal. The painting itself was huge, probably about 6' x 6'. It had billowing clouds and an endless wheat field set in the middle of a forest with the traditional peasants working the field. It's a very inspiring painting, and it's even more amazing to think the painting was painted more than 140 years ago, and it's just as brilliant today as it was back then.

There are a lot of great paintings at this exhibit. It's well worth the $16 bucks to get in and the $5 bucks to park.

I had never been to the Dallas Museum of Art before. I didn't know what to expect. They definitely have a good collection. Pretty much every great artist is represented, and walking through the museum is exactly like getting a lesson in Art History, and the layout of the museum itself is quite clever. Go there. You'll see what I mean.

Plus, there's a little known secret about me. The walls in my apartment are bare for a reason, and it's not because I'm too cheap to put up any paintings. I've had the idea for a while now that I'm going to do a series of paintings. Actually seeing Van Gogh's paintings in person was the missing piece of the puzzle before I was to begin this undertaking. He's one of my most favorite painters. I'm not saying I'll start tomorrow, but it's definitely something I've got planned to do at some point. It will probably happen as soon as I get completely tired of looking at the blank space on my walls.