page_title: The Big Easel, Emerald, Central Queensland
hierarchical_section_title: The Big Easel, Emerald, Central Queensland
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a photo of the Big Easel in Emerald Queensland.
context_page_description: The Big Easel installation art piece, created by Canadian artist, Cameron Cross, is located in the town of Emerald in Central Queensland, Australia. Erected in 1999, and unveiled in October of the same year, the installation artwork depicts Dutch artist, Vincent van Gogh’s, famous Sunflowers still life painting, which is currently part of the Van Gogh Museum’s collection in Amsterdam. The monumental reproduction of van Gogh’s painting is located on the corner of Dundas Street and the Capricorn Highway, situated in the centre of Emerald’s Discovery Park. Weighing approximately 17,000 kilograms, Cross’ steel easel measures 25 metres in height, with the canvas measuring 7 x 10 metres. The easel’s three legs consist of 30 x 30 square centimetres of steel tubing, which are secured to 10 metre piers by 24-1 metre anchor bolts. To recreate van Gogh’s canvas, Cross has used twenty-four sheets of plywood, laminated together from four panels, each of which is coated with fibreglass and then sealed with a gel coat. The plywood canvas is painted while flat on the ground, using high performance paint, which is both sprayed and hand-painted onto the surface of the plywood.
context_section_description: The Big Easel installation art piece, created by Canadian artist, Cameron Cross, is located in the town of Emerald in Central Queensland, Australia. Erected in 1999, and unveiled in October of the same year, the installation artwork depicts Dutch artist, Vincent van Gogh’s (1853-1890), famous Sunflowers (1889) still life painting, which is currently part of the Van Gogh Museum’s collection in Amsterdam.  The monumental reproduction of van Gogh’s painting is located on the corner of Dundas Street and the Capricorn Highway, situated in the centre of Emerald’s Discovery Park. Weighing approximately 17,000 kilograms, Cross’ steel easel measures 25 metres in height, with the canvas measuring 7 x 10 metres.  The easel’s three legs consist of 30 x 30 square centimetres of steel tubing, which are secured to 10 metre piers by 24-1 metre anchor bolts. To recreate van Gogh’s canvas, Cross has used twenty-four sheets of plywood, laminated together from four panels, each of which is coated with fibreglass and then sealed with a gel coat.  The plywood canvas is painted while flat on the ground, using high performance paint, which is both sprayed and hand-painted onto the surface of the plywood. 
  The giant easel in Emerald is one part of a series of seven internationally located installations titled the ‘Van Gogh Project.’ This Project sees reproductions of the seven still life paintings van Gogh created while in Arles, France, installed at different global locations. The first Big Easel was installed in Altona, Manitoba, Canada in 1998 and another was placed in Goodland, Kansas, USA in the year 2000.  The artist is currently in discussions with other cities and towns around the world for the prospective locations of the other four outdoor installations. The seven sites proposed by Cross are intended to represent a diverse societal cross section, including both rural and urban cities with a wide range of population demographics. The Emerald Easel has become a local landmark in Australia, attributed to the fact that it is the largest painting in the Southern Hemisphere. The installation also acts as a symbol of international fine art, in its role in helping to unite often disparate cultures. In its efforts to help celebrate the Emerald region’s reputation as one of Australia’s primary sunflower producers, the Big Easel reflects the town’s sense of community spirit and pride.
  Cross’ Project has focussed on selecting seven global sites which have either a connection to sunflower agriculture or an affiliation with the artist Vincent van Gogh.  During his time in Arles, between 1888 and 1889, van Gogh created seven different, but similarly themed, still life paintings depicting sunflowers in a vase. The artist originally intended to paint twelve panels of sunflowers to decorate the Yellow House at Arles.  Emerald’s Big Easel is a copy of the repetition van Gogh made of the fourth version of his Sunflowers (1888), which is currently part of the National Gallery of London’s collection. Van Gogh came to think of the sunflower as a type of artistic signature, stating in a letter to his brother, Theo van Gogh, in January 1889, "You know that Jeannin has the peony, Quost has the hollyhock, but I have the sunflower, in a way."  The symbolic significance of the sunflower to van Gogh as an artist is reflected in the Van Gogh Project. In Cross’ view, van Gogh associated the sunflower with life, symbolising the possibilities of hope and renewal.  In this way, the Big Easel emerges as a tribute to both van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting, as well as to Emerald’s local sunflower agriculture and its annual Central Highlands Easter Sunflower Festival. 
  Cross’ Van Gogh Project is designed to represent the nature of, and motivation for, the modern concept of reproduction and artistic appropriation in contemporary art practice. As an artist, Cross is interested in exploring the notion of traditional symbolism in art, and appropriating it into different social, historical and cultural contexts. In the case of his Van Gogh Project, Cross has taken the idea of the s
caption: The Big Easel, Emerald
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