I fell under the spell of Provence one summer in my early twenties, transported by its colors and scents, the play of light on the fields. There’s magic there, and Van Gogh captured it in his 1888 painting “Harvest at La Crau.” You can feel his ecstasy in his palette and brush strokes even as darkness looms. There’s a poignancy in knowing that soon enough, the painter’s obsessions will overtake him.

Pamela Schmid is Creative Nonfiction Editor at Sleet Magazine. Before receiving a 2013-14 Loft Mentor Series nonfiction award, she spent nearly a decade as staff writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Her work has appeared in Barren Magazine, the Common, Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. 

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