Went to see the exhibition of Van Gogh pictures and letters to his brother Theo on show at the Royal Academy, London, and I felt so sorry for him. All that artwork, so full of verve and colour and excitement, and poor old Vincent only ever sold one canvas during his ten years of painting. It's so unfair. The tragic man could have had no idea that people would be thronging to see his work and that collectors would pay millions for just one piece when, in the depths of despair, he lopped off an earlobe then, later shot himself. All the poor bloke wanted was recognition and a buyer or two. It's so very depressing.It was a magnificent exhibition marred, for me, by one thing - in fact many things, the 'things' in question being the gallery walls. In one of Vincent's letters to his bruv he extols the virtues of the yellow house in Arle with its whitewashed walls which show off his pictures so brightly. And what do the organisers of the exhibition do? Why, they paint the walls of each gallery in different strong colours, yellow, green, deep wine, blue, etc. As a painter myself I know that the colours used as one creates a picture are greatly affected by subsequent colours used and also by the colours of mounts, frames and walls around the finished item. To me, it appeared that the coloured walls in the various rooms displaying Van Gogh's pictures, deadened their vibrancy. Well, that's got that off my chest so I'll go up to my studio to dollop some paint around.
But, before doing that, just to say that today, Tuesday 30th March, I was on steward duty for the morning at our local art exhibition where the walls were bright white, the pictures sang out, and I was content!
