Changes  in the Northern hemisphere... Busy people under their umbrellas now replace the summer terrasses by a hot sup at home. We see temperatures drop , leaving trees with no leaves in the moonlight, roiling energy out there...

This month, I want to share with you about the night sky. A starry night that puts us in touch with beauty and the sublime... And V. Van Gogh, of course, this eccentric dutch painter, a genius  with his own style that revolutionised art. A redhead painter who brought the intensity of his vision : a wonderful sense of colours and the boldness of his technique. 

Happy reading !

Why do we love V. Van Gogh's Starry Night ? 

The moon, a Church and Cypress Tree. Below the exploding stars,  the Provençal village of Saint Remy is a place of quiet order. The painting itself brings its own internal energy (you can feel it, believe me). Connecting Earth and sky is the flamelike cypress, a tree traditionally associated with graveyards and mourning...

3 things you might not know Starry Night

• It was Painted during daytime : a romantic version tells the story that it was painted when he was at the asylum. But no, Vincent had a separate painting studio at Saint Paul de Mausole where he worked during the day. This studio had no windows at all. Van Gogh did, however, make sketches from his bedroom window, and in The Starry Night, one does see the sloping hills of the Alpilles, a low mountain range, visible from his room.
• Its radiance is an optical illusion : one part of our brains focus on light and motion, but sees color less distinctly. Another part of the brain, however, will perceive each of the contrasting colors. Vincent's bold, light-filled brushstrokes signal both of these experiences, creating the flickering sense for which the painting is so famed. 

• He was inspired by Hokusai's Great Wave. Like many Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, Vincent was deeply influenced by the Japanese woodblock prints that were imported in Europe during the 19th century. Side by side, the similarities between cresting tidal waves and the swirling heavens are easy recognize. Van Gogh even wrote to Theo about the print, saying with a sense of awe, “These waves are claws.

Welcome to our Art World