A Race With Van Gogh

I read at some point that Van Gogh managed to paint over 100 paintings in a single year and part of that year he was institutionalized. I don't know if that memory is correct or can be substantiated, but I thought it was a fitting challenge. Normally, I might finish 25 to 30 works a year. A couple of years I did my version of 100 Views of Edo, and for two consecutive years I completed 50 paintings per year. During the first COVID year, under lock-down, to keep my sanity I painted like a madman, literally, finishing 82 paintings. When this thing went into a second year, my mental state was threatened as it was the first year, and the therapy that painting was, became even more so in the second year and I thought 100 paintings would be apropos. I'm going to make it.

Here are some of the Architectonic paintings from the last couple of months. These were done for a small exhibition at a local gallery...GlassGrowers. The first painting is a painting of Sevilla, Spain.

The three smaller paintings are from a series of works inspired by the idea of Thomas Cole's Course of Empire.

Much of the year's work was figure painting and will post a few of them before the year's end.