Archive for the 'Painting' Category
Here’s a shameless promotion of my DH’s Etsy Store. He sells his work locally, but decided to open an Etsy store, as well. He is a brilliant artist. The pictures really do not do his work justice. All painted with coffee on canvas. 
Here’s a sneak peak:
October 28 2008 | Family and Painting and coffee and etsy | 4 Comments »
This morning I took an excerpt from a book that discussed Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night”, and also mentioned another “Starry Night” that Vincent painted a little later. According to Vincent Van Gogh — The Complete Works on CDRom, “The Starry Night over the Rhone” was actually painted BEFORE “Starry Night”. in September of 1888. I’m not sure which painting the book was referring to, but if I find out, I will be posting it later on.
“The Starry Night Over the Rhone”is currently at Musée d’Orsay, in Paris, France.
There are several different letters found in The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh that refer to “The Starry Night Over the Rhone”:
In Letter 552, Vincent writes to Theo of a “The Starry Night” canvas he has started that week. According to “The Complete Works on CDRom”, it is referring to “The Starry Night Over the Rhone”.
Also, in letter 547, Vincent discusses a “Starry Night”, that is supposed to be “The Starry Night Over the Rhone”.
Vincent calls it “Starry Sky”, in letter 546 to his brother Theo, calling it one of his “big studies”.
Letter 545 also talks of “The Starry Sky”.
The most descript Vincent was about this painting in a letter, was probably letter 543 to his brother Theo, saying:
“Enclosed a little sketch of a square size 30 canvas, the starry sky actually painted at night under a gas jet. The sky is greenish-blue, the water royal blue, the ground mauve. The town is blue and violet, the gas is yellow and the reflections are russet-gold down to greenish-bronze. On the blue-green expanse of the sky the Great Bear sparkles green and pink, its discreet pallor contrasts with the harsh gold of the gas.
Two colorful little figures of lovers in the foreground” (van Gogh, 1888).
November 02 2006 | Art and Letters of van Gogh and Painting and Starry Night over the Rhone and The Big Dipper and The Great Bear | No Comments »
In the book “What makes a Van Gogh a Van Gogh”, Muhlberger discusses different things about Vincent’s painting of “The Potato Eaters”. “The Potato Eaters” were actually a family named the De Groots. Vincent was friends with this family, and painted and drew several studies of them before he painted the final “The Potato Eaters” (Muhlberger, pp. 8-11, 2002).
Muhlberger goes into detail how the legs and arms of the De Groots are actually painted longer than they actually were. If you look at the painting of “The Potato Eaters”, you will see the fact that if the De Groots stood up in their tiny cottage, their heads might hit the ceiling. This was not actually how tiny their house was, but Vincent painted the De Groots this way on purpose (Muhlberger, pp. 8-11, 2002).
Muhlberger said Vincent painted the De Groots with long arms and legs, in the same way that “artists of old did with figures of saints” (Muhlberger, p. 10, 2002). With the De Groots arms and legs being extended, it would “give these kind peasants greater importance” (Muhlberger, p. 10, 2002). Vincent had a way of viewing things so much differently than the traditional way of viewing them. I’m sure, in Vincent’s mind, the De Groots were saints….
Vincent also painted the De Groots faces with as much light on them as the flame of the lamp in the painting. The rest of the room was mostly shadowed out and unimportant in Vincent’s “The Potato Eaters”, while the faces of the De Groots shone like the light of a candle. “The Potato Eaters” was considered Vincent’s first important work (Muhlberger, p. 8-11, 2002).
References
———–
Muhlberger, R (2002). What makes a van gogh a van gogh?. New York, New York: Penguin Group.
October 21 2006 | Painting and The Potato Eaters and Vincent van Gogh and What Makes a Van Gogh a Van Gogh | 1 Comment »
This is some interesting information I learned from a new Vincent van Gogh book I just got yesterday (another birthday present :)). The book is called “What Makes a Van Gogh a Van Gogh?”.
On page 12 of this book, it discusses Vincent’s study of art, and how he studied with artist Paul Signac. Paul Signac, who was ten years younger than Vincent, “had learned a new method of painting that was to become known as pointillism. In pointillism, small dots, or points, of unmixed color were dabbed onto the canvas next to one another so they would appear to blend when a viewer stepped back from the painting” (Muhlberger, p. 12, 2002).
Signac taught Vincent about painting with these dots, but Vincent never painted an entire painting in just dots like Signac had taught him. Apparently, Vincent mostly painted in dashes. The book goes on to say, that even though Vincent did not paint his paintings in only dots like Signac had taught him, he “painted the sleeves of a blue work shirt with little dots of color and wore it when he went painting with Signac” (Muhlberger, p. 12, 2002).
It is interesting hearing a story like this about Vincent painting his sleeves with little dots to suffice Signac… It shows us a little more of Vincent’s character and how his personality was. I read it, and haven’t been able to read on in the book yet, because I keep thinking about what might have been going through Vincent’s mind….. Did he do it to make Signac laugh — Like a personal joke? Most of the stories about Vincent are of such a serious nature, it seems, that it is neat to hear a story about Vincent doing something fun like this. Who knows, maybe Vincent was just being eccentric — Whatever it is, it makes Vincent even more interesting than he already was…..
References
———–
Muhlberger, R (2002). What makes a van gogh a van gogh?. New York, New York: Penguin Group.
October 21 2006 | Painting and Paul Signac and Pointillism and Vincent van Gogh | No Comments »
