Silhouette starry night painting ideas
Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890) was born in Holland to a family that either worked in the art world or as ministers. Van Gogh tried being a preacher (along with other jobs) before he settled on becoming an artist. His first paintings are kind of dark and sad because they were about the poor people he was trying to serve as a preacher. But even in these early paintings he used strong lines and shapes that helped show how he felt about the people in the art.
Vincent was very close to his brother Theo, who worked in Paris in an art gallery. They wrote many letters to each other (which is how we know so much about the things van Gogh painted) and Theo sent Vincent money to help him live and create his art. Theo was the one who told van Gogh about a new style of painting called Impressionism (see Monet’s Water Lilies) that used free-flowing and loose brushwork as well as bright, happy colors. Van Gogh was very inspired by these Impressionists, but he took those ideas and pushed them farther to be more expressive and filled with feelings. Van Gogh’s lines are more forceful and thick, and his colors burst with intensity and emotion. He always wanted the lines and colors of his paintings to show his emotions, what he was thinking and feeling (see also his “Sunflowers.”)
Vincent van Gogh, “Starry Night,” 1889.
When van Gogh painted “The Starry Night,” he was living in a health sanatorium in the south of France. It is true that van Gogh suffered from different ailments that caused him to be depressed and even have hallucinations, but the scenery and gardens at the asylum inspired him to paint some of his greatest masterpieces. He often spent hours at night looking at the landscape, writing to his brother once about how “The night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.” His resulting painting conveys the surging movement of the heavens through curving brushwork, and the stars and moon seem to explode with energy. Although the sky is animated and restless, the overall picture feels peaceful and balanced.
The large dark form in the left foreground is a towering cypress tree (we have these tall slender spire-like trees all over Southern California too), and the way it pierces the sky is echoed by the steeple of the church (remember the ministers in van Gogh’s family). These vertical elements connect the sleepy town with the sky above, and join heaven and earth in prayerful gratitude to the wonders of the world around us. The brightness of the orangey-yellow moon in the top right corner balances the darkness of the tree, and the swirling lines of white, yellow and light blue connect everything together. Van Gogh is using the thickness of his brushwork and the depth and intensity of color to express his own feelings, both happy and sad, and we are left to interpret the churning colors and lines in whatever way it makes us feel too.
