Infinite Ways to Paint a Sunflower

There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Acrylic on canvas (palette knife), K. M. Anderson

Some years ago, when we lived in Arizona, I happened to be out walking one day with my camera in tow. There was a park behind our house. As I made my way through it, I was brought up short upon spying a large party of sunflowers in a field.

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They were enormous! Most of them six feet high and even taller with diameters approaching a foot wide! I was taken aback by these huge plants and their raucous celebrations, conducted while they brazenly followed their leader, the Sun, as He crossed the sky. Beneath the blazing Arizona August sun they boisterously bobbed, while bending and swaying in the intermittent breeze.

Watercolor, K. M. Anderson

I had never seen such a sight. Who knew there could be so many shades of yellow? Who knew that plants could be so rowdy? It seemed that I’d departed from the world with which I was familiar and inadvertently arrived on a strange planet where flowers were larger than dinner plates, grew taller than men, and had leaves large enough and lengthy enough to wrap a human in a hug.

I took many photos. I created some paintings.

But, as I said, this occurred several years ago. I mention this now, in order to provide context for my present work.

Photo, K. M. Anderson

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve experienced some challenges: digestive issues and back issues. In the past year or so, these have become more pronounced. In fact, they’ve precluded my traveling to some important family events. Several days ago, as I thought of these things, I became momentarily discouraged as I seemed to see my world shrinking.

Quite suddenly, I heard a quiet voice: Go within. Create.

Watercolor, K. M. Anderson

The fact that each of us is infinite was brought to my remembrance. And, I remembered that each of us is a world. I remembered that each of us is a sun. I remembered that each of us is a logos. We can create.

I could create. I could go within to draw from that infinite well.

So, I did. For some reason - perhaps because my initial experience of them was like being at a party - I did a watercolor painting of sunflowers. What could be more cheerful? I soon realized that even if I only ever painted sunflowers until the end of this incarnation called my life, each painting would be different. As long as my intentions were open and loving, then each painting would be unique. There are infinite sunflowers. There are infinite ways to paint them.

Self portrait, Vincent Van Gogh, public domain

So, I began painting more sunflowers. That’s when I thought of Vincent Van Gogh, whose paintings of sunflowers are world famous. I have nothing like his genius, but I was reminded that he produced the most enormous quantity of his art during the last two years of his life, while he was most severely challenged by his physical and mental health.

Watercolor, K. M. Anderson

Yes, Vincent Van Gogh, who left this earthly plane at the young age of 37 years, inspired me to look within and to create. He, who showed no particular artistic talent or ability until in his twenties, but said, “If you hear a voice within you say, “You cannot paint,” then by all means, paint, and that voice will be silenced.’ (1) The same man who worked amongst the poor in a mining community, sleeping on the ground, and literally giving all he had to those around him and who said, “What is done in love is done well.” (2) Vincent, who was hounded by troubles of his own - financial, physical and mental - and who said that “Art is to console those who are broken by life.” (3) With this statement he attested to the truth that art has the power to heal and that those who live creatively can be comforted and can offer comfort to others.

Acrylic on canvas, K. M. Anderson

Yes, this man, this Vincent Van Gogh, long gone from our world since 1890, this eternal soul, has been encouraging me, comforting me, guiding me and showing me truth this past week or so. He is speaking to me through his work, his paintings, his letters and his spirit.

Watercolor, K. M. Anderson

In previous Whisperia articles, I’ve written that - as far as I can tell - our main purpose in this life is to learn to love others. I’m inspired afresh by Vincent Van Gogh who said, “I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.” (4) *

So,

Until next time, won’t you “Come with me into the field of sunflowers...?” (5),

K. M. Anderson

PhD, Metaphysics

PhD, Spiritual Counseling

Whisperia

P.S. For your convenience and enjoyment, here is Mary Oliver’s poem:

“Sunflowers,” by Mary Oliver

Come with me

into the field of sunflowers.

Their faces are burnished disks,

their dry spines

creak like ship masts,

their green leaves,

so heavy and many,

fill all day with the sticky

sugars of the sun.

Come with me

to visit the sunflowers,

they are shy

but want to be friends;

they have wonderful stories

of when they were young –

the important weather,

the wandering crows.

Don’t be afraid

to ask them questions!

Their bright faces,

which follow the sun,

will listen, and all

those rows of seeds –

each one a new life!

hope for a deeper acquaintance;

each of them, though it stands

in a crowd of many,

like a separate universe,

is lonely, the long work

of turning their lives

into a celebration

is not easy. Come

and let us talk with those modest faces,

the simple garments of leaves,

the coarse roots in the earth

so uprightly burning.

NOTES

1. “Vincent Van Gogh on Art,” Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, beyondvangogh.com

2. IBID

3. IBID

4. IBID

*

5. “The Sunflowers,” by Mary Oliver, from New and Selected Poems Volume I, Beacon Press, 2004, p. 23.