Van Gogh: 1. Me? I'll let you be the judge.

I hit a point of burnout and wrapped things up today. I’ll let the paint dry for about six months, then come back for the final touches. A year from now, I’ll add the varnish and call it done.

This piece has been a labor of love, in more ways than one. I’m not signing it now, maybe not ever. I’ll just write my name on the back and on the canvas bars—that’s enough for me.

What did I learn from this?

Patience—lots of it. Some paintings just flow naturally, but this one was work, all the way through, except for the foreground scrub below the cypress. That part came easily.

I still need to figure out how to paint Olive Trees. The ones here don’t do much for me. I’ll save the trunks for the last stage since black dries quickly, but the leaves need reworking too.

Bigger is definitely better! It uses up a lot more paint, but I don’t care. Bigger brushstrokes fit my hand better, letting me go for it instead of being delicate and overly careful.

Van Gogh was a master. I’m about two miles behind him and won’t catch up unless I paint another hundred of his works. So much left to learn.

I’m loving my water-mixable oils, especially the Berlin Lukas paints—they’re incredible!

The biggest takeaway: never give up. Whether in life or painting, if you want something badly enough, keep striving for it. Never. Give. Up.

I hope you like the painting. Looking at it now, I think I’ll tone down the white flowers and add a bit more orange to the red ones.

I haven’t decided if I’m giving this piece away. If someone truly wants it, let me know. For the right person, anything is possible.

Vincent van Gogh, "Wheat Field with Cypresses", 1889

Reproduced by Robert Hopkins 2024