Intro To Art

Vincent Van Gogh

Dutch, 1853-1890

The Starry Night 1889

Oil on canvas

This is a 2D painting that represents a landscape. The village was partly invented, and the church spire evokes  Van Goghs native land, the Netherlands. 

The artist of this painting Van Gogh wrote  “This morning I saw the country from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but morning star, which looked very big,”. To his brother Theo, from France.

From a Biographical analysis, the artist uses his experience, his vision and his opinion to shape his work of art. Rooted in Imagination and memory, The starry Night embodies a subjective expression of Van Goghs response to nature. Van Gogh uses representational style of a night that he imagined.  The artist has a vision that he strongly feels  connected to, and he was able to project  his ideas in this piece of art.  

A formal and stylistic analysis can also be seen in  Van Gogh  artwork. Formal elements of art are use to convey meaning .There is an impression of isolation due the mountains, which reflects tranquility. In the painting we are also  able to observe a village painted under a huge amount of stars that creates a sense of conform. The characteristics that make this  work of art distinctive, special and unique are the village being isolated , the night, the crescent  moon, and the sky full of bright stars produces a sense of calmness and serenity.  

As I closely observed the painting, I noticed that the artwork uses three areas to determine proximity and space. The Foreground that is represented by a huge cypress  tree. “In thick, sweeping brushstrokes, a flame like cypress unites the churking sky and the quiet village.” (Moma) drawn in  vertical lines. This  indicates that the village and the sky come together as one.   The Middle ground   that  represents the  isolated village, and the background which are the mountains and the bright sky full of stars. The main light sources are the bright stars and the crescent moon, value is also seen  in the windows from the village.

Visual elements:

·        Vertical lines such as the huge tree in the foreground , and the church tower in the middle ground, are use to convey emotion , the  vertical lines in this painting suggest strength. The artist uses  Linear perspective to create the village, all houses get smaller in all directions from  increasing distance from the eye.

·        Mark making such as the brush strokes consistence adds depth, and a dramatic illusion that creates a rich implied texture to this work of Art.

·        The Art work follows a pattern , the bright stars that are constantly appear, and the repeated brush strokes in the sky.

·        The houses and the church of the village are in a Geometric shape, composed by squares and rectangles. The trees , mountains, grass, stars, moon are all in organic shape.

·        There is no negative space in the artwork, all the painting is cover with drawing.

·        Vincent Van Gogh painting is rich in colors that is use to arouse emotion in the spectator. The artist uses both warm and cool colors in his piece of art. Blue is the most prevalent color, blue is the color of the sea, heaven and the sky, blue is a cool  color that represents wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth and loyalty; Blue, green and yellow  represent  monochromatic colors, they all come in different tones to create illusion, the artist uses different variations of of light and dark blue to create  the sky, dark blue is often associated with depth. There is also different variations of yellow in the stars and crescent moon, and different tones of green in the trees and mountains. Red in also found in the roof of the house and some yellow in the windows.

Teaching Art:

When teaching the Art I asked a few questions to start. The first question was the  first impression towards the Artwork?

He was curious about the way the Artwork was painted, for him there was a lot of lines in the sky , he was able to picture a castle, and a city in the back.  For him the painting was not normal, due to the structure of the sky, those big stars made the painting looked weird for him. For him, the artist was hallucinating when he painted his art.

Then I proceeded to ask what was his feeling when looking at the artwork?

For him, the artwork made him feel nothing, he said he was only curious of what the artist was thinking when he painted his artwork.

Then I showed him the picture and  started by communicating the type, form, style and all the visual elements. I also showed him the description of the painting and how it relates to the art.

Finally I asked him If his actitud change towards the art after I explained everything to him, he said at fist he dint care about the painting, but now he was able to associate and connect better with the colors, and the shapes. He was then able to feel that pleasing effect that art produces.

I learn that teaching art is not easy!, the verbal description it’s just as important as the visual. For someone who doesn’t have any experience with art is hard to feel connected just by the visual component, they need more than that. In order to understand art, I learn that the person needs to feel connected to the art. In order to feel connected with the art, a person has to use their imagination and try to see what the author is trying to show us. What felt easy to communicate was the color , When I was  describing the color and their meaning, I started to tell the person to think about how the color blue makes them feel, and how it relates to calmness. what was challenging was to explain was the shapes, the organic and geometric.