Starry Night (post 1)

Starry Night - Van Gogh

Above the image of Van Gogh's painting Starry Night, painted in France in June of 1889 while he was institutionalized in a Asylum. The painting was created with oil paints on a canvas that stands at 29 x 36 1/4". Van Gogh is known for his outrageous style of strokes and colors and as you can see this painting consists of multiple variations of short brush strokes, that help distinguish the movement in this painting. He uses color contrast in this painting to create focal points that lead the viewers eyes across the painting from left to right. The swirling clouds in the middle of the painting show movement, and create a scene for the night in which Van Gogh was aiming to capture in his painting. The dark figure in the foreground of the painting has no accredited identity, leaving it the viewers to create an identity of their own for it, such as a mountain or a tall tree that may be place on a hill that's just out of view.

I chose this image, because I am awed by all of Van Gogh pieces, but this one painting has been my favorite since I was young and just getting into the interest of art. I have replicated this painting a few times for my own interest through once with charcoal, and once in gray scale. His depiction of this starry night creates a story in and of itself. Seeing as it was painted in an Asylum in Saint-Remy, the first thought that came to mind was that this painting was a view from his hospital window. Maybe from seeing this view each night was something that provoked Van Gogh to want to capture it in its entirety. This is an amazing work of art this give out so many swarms of emotions from sadness, to calming, and even sometimes a sense of being scared. This piece is currently located at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY.