Canadian artist and educator Cameron Cross was working in Altona, Canada in the late 1990s when he had a vision: to replicate the seven Sunflowers large-scale paintings in different parts of the world. Cross selected seven sites for his Big Easel project, based on their sunflower farming or their connection to the Dutch artist. So far, three of the paintings in the series have been completed.

Cross started there in Altona, the sunflower capital of Canada, in 1998. His second facility was in Emerald, Australia, a rural town in the Central Highlands of Queensland known for sapphire mining and the production of sapphire. sunflower. This was followed in 2001 by another sunny masterpiece in the United States, located in Goodland, Kansas. (Kansas is aptly dubbed the Sunflower State.)

The Emerald artwork unveiled in 1999 claims to be the largest painting in the southern hemisphere. The enormous “canvas” consists of 24 sheets of plywood, laminated to create a surface of seven meters by 10 meters, covered with fiberglass and decorated with approximately 50 liters of paint. The “easel” contains 13.6 tonnes of steel and is 25 meters high.

The painting in Emerald is a replica of Van Gogh’s fourth Sunflowers, which he created in 1888 and which is now kept at the National Gallery in London. The landmark is a popular roadside attraction for visitors to Emerald and its surrounding sunflower fields.