Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh; a well known name by most and a highly reputable figure amongst painters and other artists, he showed his true talent and passion for the arts in his short career, a career which only lasted ten years (Preble 117). As we know, it takes a tremendous amount of effort, awareness and creativity to convey your emotions, thoughts and feelings through your work. Here, we will attempt to construe his feelings through his work and also begin to view and understand things the way Van Gogh did. The painting, from the 1880's is that of a night's sky composed of oil on canvas. At a first glance Van Gogh's painting seems to be composed entirely abstract, but with a closer look and more attentiveness you begin to notice the detail that makes this piece so remarkable.

Van Gogh uses mainly complementary colors in this work, such as the blues for the night's sky and oranges for the moon and stars, which in turn make each of the colors more noticeable. He also used different values of the same color, a variety of greens, blues and yellows which make the work seem complete and unified. Vincent applied these colors on very thickly with short strokes of the brush. As we can tell the repetition of these strokes sets the rhythm. It seems almost like all the brush stokes are flowing from right to left, except at the center of interest; the wind, where the strokes seem to be from the left to the right. He also uses implied lines to keep our attention on the painting. It seems as if though he has almost Ð''created' a triangle between the tree, wind and moon to keep our eye traveling throughout.

Van Gogh also used a unique technique in this work that not many other painters had attempted before his time; he used both organic and geometric shapes. The houses in the painting are very geometrically shaped, with triangular roofs and square windows and doors. The