Five Nests, 24" x 36"
Detail of Five Nests
Nest, Books and Table, 24" x 16"
In an essay by Petra Ten-Doesschate Chu titled "Emblems for a Modern Age: Vincent van Gogh's Still Lifes and the Nineteenth-Century Vignette Tradition," the idea of the nest as a symbol of the artist's creative effort is examined. She overlays the thinking of Michelet onto the work of Van Gogh, in particular his paintings of bird's nests. She quotes, the nests "signify works of art and the artist himself, his creative effort and the total involvement and supreme suffering that creativity necessitates." Not that I think my suffering is in any way 'supreme,' but I like the interpretation of the nests as creativity itself rather than as sentimental or quaint objects. This is what I like about realism - how what appears as straightforward transcription can have multiple meanings and nuances to different viewers.
- note: this essay can be found in The Object as Subject: Studies in the Interpretation of Still Life edited by Anne W. Lowenthal
Still Life with Three Birds' Nests, 1885, Vincent van Gogh
Another artist I have been looking at a lot lately is Antonio Lopez Garcia. You can actually see him painting in some clips on YouTube (including the one below) and I daresay our approach is somewhat similar in that he uses the act of painting to try to understand what he sees and to articulate the space around him. Honesty and clarity are the byproducts of this, rather than 'effect.'
~ for more information on price and availability please view the 'paintings' page on my website.
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