Starry Night

This painting can be viewed in two different ways. One way the viewers may see this is as a nice night with the town underneath the sky. The other way is the tree represents some sort of flame and the mountains in the background can represent a tidal wave that is going to come over the town.  The two different views offer a positive and a negative view of the painting. Starry Night has lots of texture because of the thick application of paint. It also has lots of movement as seen through the curved lines especially in the sky.  Van Gogh also took time in choosing the blue, green and yellow colors when he decided to paint this picture.  The colors he uses are very saturated but overall the colors have a dull affect.

The way that Van Gogh paints, using thick layers of paint, shows that he really did not have any form of academic training compared to others artist during his time period.  Although he had no academic training, he had a level of expertise.  This style of painting shows us a beginning to a new age.  Looking at the lines and marks in the painting, they appear to be vibrating and agitated.  From this, we can think that the painter may have had an agitated mental state. Van Gogh was agitated state because he was so poor that he could barely afford to buy food. Another thing to look at is why he painted Starry Night. He painted this for himself and no one commissioned him to do so.  During this time period art started to become a calling and that was what it was for Van Gogh.