Thursday, June 12, 2008

Blog Makeover

I must be in a procrastinating mood to spend time figuring out how to insert a picture in the header and then pick one out. But voilà! Instant makeover!

The header picture is a detail from Vincent's May 1888 "View of Arles with Irises" (I've cut the irises, which are at the bottom of the original painting). The view is from a field in the south of town; the towers of the church of Saint-Trophime are visible in the skyline. Vincent, in writing about this painting to Theo, said: "A little town surrounded by fields all covered with yellow and purple flowers, exactly--can't you see it?--like a Japanese dream" (LT487). He loved this painting enough to write about it to his friend Émile Bernard too, saying, "What a subject, eh! That sea of yellow with a band of violet irises, and in the background that coquettish little town of the pretty women!" (B5).

This painting today is in the Van Gogh Museum--the family never parted with it. It was out on loan last year when I went to Amsterdam, and I was delighted to find it in the "Van Gogh and Expressionism" exhibition in New York later in the summer. It's one of my favorites for its colors and composition.

4 comments:

Julianne Douglas said...

Looks great, Sheramy! I have to figure out how to do the same.

Sheramy Bundrick said...

It's simple, really. In "Customize Layout" just click "Edit" there on Header and you'll see where to insert the picture. Click "shrink to fit" and "behind title and description." You can then change font color of your title/description if you need to (I didn't).

Glad you like! I feel a sense of accomplishment for having figured out something technological, haha! Luckily they design these blog features for the computer-challenged...

Catherine Delors said...

Congratulations, Sheramy! It looks beautiful. I wish you could have left the irises, though.
I just redesigned my blog as well, in a different style obviously (lots of reds.) Someone asked me if those were bedsheets on my new heading...

Sheramy Bundrick said...

Hi Catherine--I saw your blog-makeover--it looks great!