Van Gogh

Self portrait 1889

Van Gogh

Van Gogh is a artist that I have mentioned before as an artist that has always been associated with mental illness. He is thought to have had quite a tortured life that had a massive impact on him mentally that was reflected in both his behaviour and work. It is suggested that one of the roots of his mental illness was in fact the death of his brother who died exactly and year and a day before he was born, as a child he was constantly blamed for the death of his brother, his parents believed that he replaced his older brother. To add insult to injury his parents gave him the same name as his dead older brother which made Vincent feel as if he was always trying to be someone who he's not. This is said to be the start of his trouble.

Sunflowers 1888

Van Gogh is inspired by past classic painters such  as Rembrandt, Millet and Van Ruysdael. This was the style to paint at the time and Van Gogh painted in a very different style when he was younger, this was before he ha any major influences but also before he has and professional training. Van Gogh from the staring point of his training questioned the teaching where others would just accept the answers, this is something that he does with all his work he is always pushing and questioning the limits in his work. By him doing this in college his tutors began to worry about his mental state then. 

Van Gogh's work is often concentrated of everyday objects, but his paintings are a lot more interesting than the objects. His work is made up of loads of different marks that aren't blended and are textured, this is like the obsessive drawing condition that I have researched. Van Gogh created his work because he wanted people to feel an excitement from an everyday object, he wanted to enhance the normal, take it from reality.

 His work didn't become famous until after his death, but his later years in life where quite hard on him he didn't know where he was mentally and he was believed to have given himself lead positioning from his paintings. Which I suppose if the ultimate irony for an artist, his work actually killed him. I think that people like his work because of his natural flare and consistently developing style that he created. My favourite work of his is " The Starry Night" which is one of his most famous, but I just think that the movement that he manages to capture within the painting was incredible. It is thought again that Van Gogh might have suffered from hallucinations which is where he got this image of movement in the sky from. I think his story is quite sad, but at the same time the art world wouldn't be like it is today without him.

 Starry Night over the Rhone, 1888

Personally I am quite a fan of his works and I really like the painterly style that they are made with, the texture and the marks that are made are really carefully placed, but they also seems to be part of this giant elaborate pattern that seems to take over the whole image. My favourite work is "the starry night" Because of the pattern in the night Skye and the mixture of dark and warm colours. I know this is typically one of his most famous paintings, but there is something so instinctive about his work it's so well accomplished. I would like take inspiration from the work and experiment with really thick paint and oils, the only downside might be by using oils they wouldn't be dry by the end of my project. 

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/biography.html