Just in case a lot of you forgot yesterday was Sunday so I decided to take some time off and leave my computer tucked away in it's favourite corner. However, today is another day so here I am again,like it or loathe it! A while back I talked briefly about using photographs as inspiration for your writing today it will be about paintings that stimulate the creative process. Just to show what I mean I'm going to use the song « Vincent » by Don McClean to illustrate my point. The video below has been seen by over ten million viewers. The reason is simple, joining this song to the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh shows just how two different subjects can be brought together to give us a real moment of pleasure. You'll have to admit that the verses of the song reflect with perfection the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh. If only we could dig in to all of the emotions that other artists use to create their works I wonder just how many other songs could be found that would have the same resonance? So what do I suggest outside of reading books about Hopper or Egon Schiele or others is to go to your local art gallery with your notebook and write down any and all the emotions that you encounter when being gathered into the painting. I say gathered in because a painting is like a book, you have to lose yourself in it's interpretation in order to feel any kind of emotion. As you are all writers this should not be an unfamiliar thing to understand.