Celebrates World Tourism Day With Art

This September 27 marks the 41st anniversary of a very special occasion: the founding of World Tourism Day.

Since 1980, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the international community has celebrated the day as an opportunity to promote tourism and the positive effects it has on social and cultural values worldwide.

This year's theme is Tourism Linking Culture, with a particular focus on the arts and its relationship with tourism.

VP of Marketing at Cheapoilpainting.com, Olivia Preston, said oil paintings have served as a medium of record and communication for centuries. "European exploration fleets always had at least one artist as part of their crew to record scenes of the New Worlds, while paintings have been traded as valuable cultural products as long as written history has existed."

To help celebrate World Tourism Day, Cheapoilpainting.com lists three famous oil paintings that have attracted the interests of millions around the world, promoting cultural awareness and tourism to the locations they portray.

1.    Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night (1889). This Van Gogh painting is considered his magnum opus, and for several fine reasons. The artwork portrays the Dutch artist's view from outside his sanatorium room window at night, leading many eager tourists to scour the French countryside at Arles for a glimpse of the village of Saint-Rémy, as pictured in the painting. What they will not find is the cypress tree to the left, which the artist later added into the oil painting. The painting is not only a visual masterpiece, but it also provokes discussion and cultural exchanges about mental illnesses, given the artist and the context in which he produced the work.

2.    Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire (1902-04). Considered one of the fathers of modernism, Cézanne produced dozens of oil paintings detailing the countryside around his home in Aix-en-Provence, France. One recurring icon was the Sainte-Victoire mountain, which he painted dozens of times over many years. The oil painting produced from 1902-1904, and now currently housed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is particularly special. Art historians agree it is one of the earliest works of Cubism, thus introducing viewers to both the French countryside and the start of a revolutionary art movement.

3.    Claude Monet, Water Lilies. The French master painted about 250 oil paintings in his celebrated series of Monet water lilies. Monet paintings all depict scenes from Monet's garden at Giverny, which was the main focus of artistic inspiration in the latter period of his career. The paintings are also highly valued. On June 24, one painting in the series, titled Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas, sold for £41 million at a Christie's auction in London. The water lilies are not only a fine example of Impressionism, but they are a perennial drawcard for tourists to the Monet homestead and museum at Giverny. It is now one of the most highly visited museums in the world.

Another recent trend in landscape oil paintings is the increasing popularity of picture to painting canvas artwork as more people travel and take thousands of digital photos.

Ms. Preston said she believed the widespread use of digital cameras was leading people back to something more traditional. "Everyone has hundreds of photos from their holidays and trips. People are looking for something more tangible and traditional, which is why they are choosing the photo to painting service on our website. Canvas oil paintings have a time-honored nostalgia that is very hard to replace."