In what she referred to as Reverse Art, <br />she decided to re-create <br />Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” <br />in an arrangement of real blooms <br />on the kitchen table. <br />Afterwards she would photograph <br />and then paint what she saw. <br /> <br />She succeeded admirably <br />in getting every stem <br />in exactly the right angle, <br />every blossom in the perfect pose, <br />removing petals, <br />bending stems, <br />artificially wilting some of the buds <br />with a heat gun. <br /> <br />She had a ceramics expert <br />mold and paint <br />a precise replica <br />of the two-toned vase. <br /> <br />On completion, <br />she stepped back <br />and declared her “painting” <br />authentic, but a failure. <br /> <br />What was absent <br />was the startling sunlight of Provence <br />and the flowers' response to it, <br />which was the painter's response to it. <br />These flowers droop and bow <br />with the punishing weight <br />but cannot wholly absorb <br />the exquisite passion, <br />the contorted brush-strokes <br />of indescribable anguish.<br /><br />Sonny Rainshine<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/art-forgery/
