Town of Altona, Manitoba

Van Gogh's Sunflowers

When Built: October 1998

Dimensions:
Easel Height: 80 Feet (24.4 Metres)
Painting Width: 24 Feet (7.3 Metres)
Painting Height: 32 Feet (9.8 Metres)
Weight: 30,000 Pounds

Construction Materials:
Easel legs are made from 12" X 12" tubular steel.
The back grid work is 8" X 8" tubular steel.
The painting consists of 24 sheets of 4' X 8' 3/4 inch fir plywood.

Location:
Northwest corner of town.
Past the CAN-AM Food Processing Plant on 10th Avenue Northwest.
It is located behind the new Altona Multiplex.

Reason for Building:

Altona is the Sunflower Capital of Canada and is part of a larger international art project that will see seven easels erected around the world.

Additional Information:

The sheets were fibreglassed with two layers of one ounce matte fibreglass, then sprayed with automotive primer and then painted with many layers of Acrylic Urethane Enamel (industrial paint).

Project took one year to complete.

There is a 36 Foot (11 Metre) span between the legs. To give you a perspective of the size, there is a man standing besides one of the legs in the first picture. There is a car in the second photo.

The structure was engineered at 38 pounds per square foot "so that it can withstand even the nastiness of prairie winds"

Cameron Cross plans to erect six other easels in six other countries around the world. You can follow his progress on his web site: http://www.thebigeasel.com

Samson Yee provided a different view:

Information Source: Cameron Cross

Pictures Sources: DMY and Samson Yee

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Created By DMY on June 20, 1999
Last Updated: January 16, 2004