Just back from a wonderful 1 week holiday in Ottawa! Spent time at the National Gallery and at the special exhibit “Van Gogh: Up close”. There are over 40 van Gogh paintings plus some of his drawings! My favourite was “View of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer” with lavender fields in the foreground and town with castle in the distance. It was also wonderful to see the famous “Almond Blossom” up close, and I was quite taken by a painting called “Wheat Fields with Sheaves” that I had not seen before in any of my books. The tree trunks in “The Large Plane Trees” were stunning. Although there were a number of his lesser works that were not quite as interesting, there were more than enough fantastic paintings to make this trip worthwhile. Here’s the link to information about the show at the National Gallery in case you have the chance to go van Gogh!