One day in 1565 the great Dutch painter Pieter Bruegel put down his brush & pronounced his masterpiece, "The Harvesters" complete. 

   The Metropolitan Museum of Art declares it "a “watershed in the history of Western art” & the “first modern landscape.”

   Since the Met has lifted copyright restrictions I have taken massive liberties with the original painting to make my own statement – to use Bruegel's work to create a portal.

   Open the door of the original painting and you receive a lovely tour through a 16th century Dutch countryside made to look paradisal by the master.

   Look at my variation and you will find an actual door through which you may travel where you wish. I also added other figures as guides. To create the sense that paradise is always off in the distance & that daily work can seem gray I subtracted the foreground color leaving behind only a few hints of light for those with open eyes.

   The world we occupy is one we will soon leave. Meanwhile, I fancy finding secret doors here & there, walking through them & experiencing briefly what paradise offers eternally. 

-Erie Chapman

Photoart: "Variations on a Bruegel" 2018 by Erie