The cutting and gluing is a most precise work.
(Use Matte Medium (Liquitex) only; it's an excellent glue medium for Collages!)
I painted a Dutch snow landscape between the trees, changed the trees and gave it the typical Dutch Willow Tree character.

I JUST LOVE IT. Hope you enjoy it as well.
I think van Gogh would! smile

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Van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theo:
(c.15 October 1881)
”If one draws a pollard willow as if it were a living being, which after all is what it really is, then the surroundings follow almost by themselves, provided only that one has focused all one's attention on that particular tree and not rested until there was some life in it.”

and...
”… in all nature, for instance in trees, I see expression and soul… ”
5 November 1882

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Some of Van Gogh's pollard willow paintings:
HERE you have an example of van Gogh's willow trees.
This is van Gogh's pollard willow with setting sun.
This is a chalk drawing of van Gogh's pollard willows.
Website of the van Gogh Museum Amsterdam with tons of info.
Letter sketch

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Some info about Dutch willow trees:
Lots of Dutch painters (such as van Gogh) used the Pollard Willow Tree to show a typical Dutch landscape
Common name is KNOTWILG (in Dutch) Pollard-Willow.
The Botanical name is Salix Alba
It has soft wood, with an average age of 50 years.
In Holland it's a common tree; there are many willows.
When the pollard willow achieves a height of 200-250 cm, (appr. 78 inches) the upper branches are cut off, so the max. height will stay all at the same size.
That gives this particular look of these trees in Holland's landscape.
The young twigs are used for many purposes: willow matting, hoops, baskets, wooden shoes, artwork

Copyright Olga van Dijk 2009©
This is another OLGartsProduction©2009