This current sideline of the 2026 project is to learn about the Post-Impressionism art movement.

Post-Impressionism is a predominantly French art movement (c. 1886-1905) reacting against Impressionism, where artists like Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, and Seurat used vivid colors, thick paint, and distorted forms to express emotions and ideas, moving towards abstraction with symbolic meaning rather than just capturing fleeting light and naturalism.

I became familiar with Van Gogh in my pre-teen years in the mid-1950s and have had his painting “Starry Night” on my walls ever since. There is just something about the vivid colors and distorted forms that drew me in. I am already in the middle of two thick books on this short-lived art movement and eventually hope to mimic it in my own style of artsy.

One of the many stories about Van Gogh is that he suffered from tinnitus and cut his ear off to stop the constant ringing. Of course it didn’t help. I, too, have suffered from “ringing ears” for most of my life. That gave me the first commonality with this troubled artist. As I learned more about him, many more would follow.

This is the first Artsy post that is doing something besides images. I am learning a lot about artsy and just feel that I have to bring you along for the ride. So, some posts here will go into the “teacher” mode. I hope you don’t mind and maybe even enjoy the ride.