This is the latest project by landscape artist Stan Herd, who uses fields as canvases to create large-scale interpretations of art. He recreates famous pieces (like the Van Gogh painting seen here) and even works on some originals. They’re unique because they can only be seen in full from the air.

This piece is composed of different plants, tracks, and soil patterns. Herd used grass of different lengths to create various tones and values.

This is the painting that Herd recreated with living plants.

It’s Vincent Van Gogh’s 1889 piece called Olive Trees.

First, the painting was measured and the land was parceled out.

The grid you see on the print helped Herd and his team create a scale model.

After that, the real work began.

This piece of landscaping art is located near an airport in Minneapolis, and it’s visible to passengers as they enter the city. Herd has been working on these landscaping projects, which he calls “earthworks,” since 1981.

The project was commissioned by the Minneapolis Institute of Art (which is home to the original painting) in an effort to get people excited about visiting the city.

Each element of the painting had to be carefully planned out to ensure that the proportions were right.

Creating an earthwork like this is no simple feat, and it requires a lot of physical labor.

And this isn’t even the largest earthwork that Herd has created.

In the early 1980s, he made one that covered 160 acres of land in Kansas.

With patience and hard work, the image started coming together.

The fruit of Herd’s labor is absolutely stunning.

The Van Gogh earthwork will be on display near the airport throughout the autumn season. Herd plans to mow down the creation when winter arrives, but even his method of destruction is symbolic. He will remove the earthwork in a concentric circle pattern that mimics Van Gogh’s painting method.

You can see more of Herd’s earthworks on his website, and learn more about the original Van Gogh painting from the Minneapolis Institute of Art. If you happen to fly into Minneapolis this fall, snap a picture of the field and share it with the tags #BDayMia and #vangrow.

The post This Artist Decided To Bring A Van Gogh Painting To Life In A Very Literal Way appeared first on Barnorama.

Davis uses centuries of humans’ relationship with nature and the unknown to inspire her work. She takes influence from naturalists and scientists of the modern age, as well as fairy tale heroes and mythical creatures of ancient times. In her pieces, the forests swirl with smoke, open into mysterious passageways, and twinkle with stars. Each of her collections expand on a specific theme of exploration, alienation, and connection.

Between the Trees

The Between the Trees series looks at the pockets of space in a forest (which is described in a poem as “the space between its trees”). It uses smoke to make those spaces appear more evident.

Come With Me

In this series, Davis used various materials to make meandering pathways through the woods. She used pigments, paper, and natural and artificial materials for the various paths. The series explores the concepts of mapping an individual’s placement in and movement through the unknown.

Knit One, Pearl One

Like Come With Me, this series, which sees wool fibers woven through tree branches, also makes a kind of path. However, the material, Davis says, reflects ideas about connection between seemingly separate entities by the land itself.

Smoke and Mirrors Heathland

This series uses artificial trees in bright, unnatural colors to explore how nature can be turned into something artificial, and how something artificial can be thought of as naturally occurring.

Another Green World

These pot-like objects, covered in mosses and other natural vegetation, are part of this series on exploration. Davis was inspired by the “new worlds” discovered by explorers and scientists over the years. She based these strange items around the idea of discovering something new.

Islands

The dramatic lighting in this series turns pieces of the forest into floating “islands” that seem removed from the natural world. The darkness surrounding them seems potentially dangerous.

The Dwellings

These mysterious huts made from natural materials evoke the feeling of settlement and home, particularly in the wild, as well as the pleasure, according to Davis, of building. These structures are left in the forest to degrade naturally, similar to the work of another forest artist.

Stars

Davis’ most recent project doesn’t actually exist as the photos here show. To create these images, she combined images of the forest with images of stars from the Hubble Telescope. The combination of earthly and galactic spaces speaks to the idea that no matter how big or small, one can always explore.

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