The Spirit of Arles

Today we went back to Arles to view an exhibition of Van Gogh, and a modern British artist, Glenn Brown, whose use of colour is influenced by Vincent. It was fascinating seeing Van Gogh's earlier works (classically dark still-lifes and portraits) alongside similar works that he painted in his new colourful style, some only twelve months apart. 

My blip background is a detail from Field with Irises near Arles, 1888, with irises that I photographed a few days ago in Romain en Gal, and some wild flowers growing in Arles, 2016. The primary colours of the latter, that so please me, are widely used by Van Gogh, for example in the jacket he's wearing in the self-portrait, included here, whose 'blue' is peppered with red and yellow strokes of paint. 

The compilation is also an attempt at this week's challenge in Emma Davies's AYWMC online photography course. Accepting that there's nothing new under the sun, the challenge was to be creative. I chose 'C' of her mnemonic 'SCAMPER' - C for 'Combine one element with another'. So here it is - The Spirit of Arles!

PS When we emerged from the exhibition and sat eating ice-creams at a cafe, I took a photo of the street. Looking at the image on my camera's preview screen, I thought, What's that patch of blue? I looked up to discover it was The Sky. The clouds had lifted - we had blue sky - and, on returning to our holiday house, three of us had a swim in the outdoor pool. Well, someone had to stay dry to take our photo. See Extra!