Introduction
The Starry Night is a recognized masterpiece by the prominent Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. This painting has influenced many works of art in the 20th century as well as some modern artists. In this paper, after a short outline of The Starry Night, I present my own painting inspired by the work of Van Gogh. The main aim of this paper is to understand The Starry Night better by reflecting on my piece of art.
Original Piece of Art
The Starry Night was written by Vincent van Gogh in 1889 during his captivity in the mental hospital at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. The painting itself is based on the view from the artist’s room(Richman, 2019).In fact, van Gogh created many versions of this view, but The Starry Night is the only nocturnal one. However, the letters of Van Gogh show that he was passionate about the night(Scott, 2019). While the artist was in the asylum, he was not able to paint during the night and thus, created his masterpiece by memory in the daytime.
Personal Art Piece
This painting represents my personal reflections on van Gogh’s The Starry Night. I have decided to call this piece Eternity, as it was the main topic I was thinking about while looking at The Starry Night. The curls, which display eternity, are painted with a pencil so that they are not very visible. The green strokes symbolize the fact that humans have to struggle for access to eternal life. Green is the color of life on Earth, and these why the curls are overshadowed by the strokes.
Connection Between The Two Paintings
I have already mentioned that, in my view, the confrontation between eternal and mortal life is the main theme of The Starry Night. It is possible to divide this painting into two parts: the first one shows the sky with stars, and the second depicts a village in the valley. There is also a cypress tree that might symbolize life after death. The sky on the painting occupies more place than the village, which means that van Gogh believed in the victory of eternal life over mortal. In my painting, one can also find the signs of both kinds of life, but it seems that my message is slightly different. I believe that the frailty of human existence prevails over eternity.
Van Gogh used bright colors to emphasize the luminescence of the stars in the night sky. One can find some lights in the village houses as well, but it is clear that the stars grab the attention of the viewer. I used another painting technique in order to express my main idea. Although the curls in my painting are partly borrowed from The Starry Night, I tried to use a pencil to make them faint and stress the strokes at the same time. I used a green marker to make the strokes visible and perceivable.
Conclusion
It is evident that my piece of art cannot be compared to The Starry Night by van Gogh. However, I did not attempt to create a masterpiece but rather tried to reflect on the original painting by creating a personal one. I have found out that van Gogh tried to depict the discrepancy between eternal and mortal life. I took the main idea of van Gogh’s work of art but interpreted it in another way. I tried to show that eternal life can hardly be noticed behind earthly affairs. Thus, I used slightly different materials and compositions for creating my work of art.
References
Richman, K. (2019). How van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” came to be and continues to inspire artists. Web.
Scott, D. (2019). A closer look at “The Starry Night”by Vincent van Gogh. Web.