Starry Night

Vincent Van Gogh's painting entitled "The Starry Night" is a magnificent piece of art work that is known and loved by many different cultures. I have a great appreciation for Van Gogh, I think his artwork is incredible. Starry Night is by far my favorite. I started researching Van Gogh many years ago and the love just grew over the years and even more when I had to take an art class in college. Although Vincent Van Gogh actually only sold one painting before his death, he was still well known for his great work as an artist. "The Starry Night" was actually painted in September of 1888 while he was staying in Arles, it was then produced in mid September of 1889 following a heavy crisis that lasted for about 2 months. People may view this painting in many different ways and no one person knows exactly what was going through Van Gogh's mind when he painted it. My impression of "The Starry Night" painting is amazing. It is a beautiful and colorful piece of work. When I look at this painting, I see a portrait of a small town on a windy, maybe somewhat chilly moonlit night with many clouds in the sky, and wind blowing through the trees. The town looks peaceful and the one thing that stands out the most is the church and bright full moon lighting up the town. In my opinion, it is a beautiful piece of work and I admire it. It makes me feel peaceful and calm inside when I look at it. I see a small village and the weather seems cold and windy as if you can almost feel it blowing on your face. The stars are shining bright and the moon is beautiful with enough light to light up the entire village. When I look at it, I feel as if I can almost step into the painting, and feel the tranquility of the scenery. The painting portrays a magical night to me, or at least that's what I feel when I look at it. But after reading and doing so much research on Van Gogh and his life, and the struggles he endured with personality and psychiatric problems, I have come to think the painting was reflecting the way he was feeling inside himself. I feel like he was indeed a sad man of which he was trying to escape his emotions in his artwork. I feel this painting depleted his feelings by the whirling winds and the clouds in the sky. Maybe he felt as if his own life was a whirlwind and that there were many dark clouds hanging over him, that he was trapped in a village with no where to go. As I said before no one knows exactly what is meant by this painting, but the quote by Van Gogh "The diseases that we civilized people labor under most are melancholy and pessimism" are strong, so maybe he was somewhat melancholy and pessimistic himself, maybe he was just a sad man trying to escape the pressures of life, we will never know for sure but the one thing we do know and can appreciate is that he was a wonderful artist with a brilliant imagination. I will definitely from time to time write about other paintings of his. To me they are all awesome and each tell a different story to each. Take a look at it closely, and see what you see, everyone is different, so your opinion might not be the same as mine, but even so, this piece is amazing.