“My dear sister, I believe that at present we must paint nature’s rich and magnificent aspects; we need good cheer and happiness, hope and love. The uglier, older, meaner, iller, poorer I get, the more I wish to take my revenge by doing brilliant colour well.”
This is one of Vincent Van Gogh’s quotes about colors. I am a true fan of his paintings. I like blue and yellow more than other colors. I like excitement and movement. Relatively, I like Van Gogh’s style indeed very much. Yes I am a minimalist illustrator, but Van Gogh is one of the inspirations in my journey. Like him, I like sun and its joy. Therefore I decided to start new “ Artists and their colors” writing serie with him. When I was planning the post I looked at many sites but one site shaped my ideas about it; https://www.vangoghstudio.com/. There is a link called “Your Daily Dose of Van Gogh” and as a Van Gogh fan I was very excited. I stated to read questions and they were so helpful for me to understand him. I read these short questions and answers that made him more than a painter; an artist in his journey. It was like walking with him in his yellow and blue paintings. I also choose some questions to share with you! They were the ones that made me smile the most. In this post I will mainly be writing about these questions and his letters.
“How did Van Gogh play with colors?”, “ What is the meaning of Van Gogh’s colors?”, “ How many bird’s nests did Van Gogh paint?”, “How important were colors to Vincent Van Gogh”, “For whom did Vincent Van Gogh paint the blossoming almond tree?” , “Did Vincent Van Gogh dream about stars?”, and lastly “ Which books did Vincent Van Gogh read?” the questions that I choose. Of course there so many questions I wanted to include, but I wanted to keep this post short.
One of the main reasons that we can have ideas about his life is him writing letters to his brother. They had a very special relationship that carried his legacy to these days. He not only wrote about his artistic perspective but also his influences. Here is some answers that I read to questions above;
- Van Gogh looked for contrast in his paintings. Also painting different shades of color next to each other were his play rules.
- He used colors as means of light, cheer, happiness, hope and love. They were his influences.
- He painted 5 bird’s nest after each other. He was fascinated by their beuty.He also saw them as metaphors.
- He liked light. He was excited to paint light and colors were his main tools.
- This answer and question were the most emotional and joyous one for me. He painted blossoming almond tree for his nephew. He was a good uncle.
- He dreamt and painted stars more than once.
- He read Charles Dickens, Michelet, Carlyle, Balzac and many more writers.
Writing this post was one of the exciting topic; my favorite painter and his colors. Furthermore, learning about his journey made me happier. Him being an uncle and his quote about a good cheer showed his inner world. You can learn more about these questions from this site. I hope you enjoy reading this.
With love,
Serra 🙂
Note; answers and questions are from the site I mentioned above.
Thingsbyserra 