Escape to Provence
I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say “ he feels deeply, he feels tenderly”. Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
The “Escape to Provence” is the name of a unique and limited collection which are inspired by Vincent van Gogh’ life in the region of Provence – Alpes - Cotes d’Azur. After spending a few years living in Paris, Vincent van Gogh decided to move to the South of France, because he was tired of the Paris city life and cold weather. He moved to Arles on 20 February 1888 were the unique light and colors of Provence came alive in his paintings. This collection is another way of representing Vincent van Gogh’ art and his unique personality. It’s all about feelings, textures , colours , elements of the nature. It’s a tribute to his everyday hard working life and an imaginary conversation with his lonesome soul. Vincent van Gogh often tested his colour combinations before painting with threads of wool in various hues. And here where our story begin! He had an atractive red lacquer box in which he kept the balls of yarn. In the collection were used for creating the handmade pieces more than 40 km / 25 miles of threads, everyting was connected in one concept which created a deep, modern and tender visual story. The elements of nature from his paintings such as sunflower, ears of wheat, field of wheat , iris, trees, birds and also the colors, represent the decorative underlaying aspect of all collection, maintaining the idea of simplicity while being well-dosed, because it’s an escape to the bosom of nature to all of us. Like a sunrise and sunset, it’s our life that has a continuity in the darkness of the night pierced by the moonlight and stars. Yellow was Vincent’s favorite color. He prefered yellow ochre in the beginning of his career, adding the newly discovered pigments cadmium yellow and chrome yellow later on. He said: “ How lovely yellow is! It stands for the sun”. Also, there are white and black, the non-colors also called the shades. The white of collection is a metaphorical representation of the Saint-Paul de Mausole asylum from Saint- Remy-de-Provence, where he spent the penultimate year of his life, and the black is about his disapearing through the eternal gate. In other words, the collection is about the life cycle rendered through colors and shades. Everything in this collection is created and made in exclusivity by the designer. “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together”.
Designer: Constanta C. Balaban