Whirls of blue, blacks, and yellows captivate your eye as set your gaze upon “The Starry Night” By Vincent van Gogh. This is a very well-known painting by van Gogh, he painted this in 1889. Van Gogh expressed his desire to paint the night sky, and questioned whether he could achieve his intention by painting from nature as the impressionists did. Van Gogh had first painted Starry Night Over The Rhone in 1888, before he was hospitalized in December at Arles. It does me good to do what's difficult, "Van Gogh wrote, "That doesn’t stop me having a tremendous need for, shall I say the word—for religion—so I go outside at night to paint the stars. May 1889 van Gogh entered an asylum, where he remained for the next year. Even though he had interruptions due to nervous attacks, van Gogh was inspired by the landscape around the asylum. He finished The Starry Night in June 1889. The difference between his two paintings was Starry Night was painted during the day, from memory. Van Gogh had many challenges during the way. Van Gogh wanted to achieve his painting from nature as impressionists did, and I think he succeeded. Impressionist painting characteristics include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities, ordinary subject matter, and inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. He did capture his perception of the night sky. He used what he saw outside his asylum to paint this eye catching piece of work. There is the night sky filled with swirling clouds, stars ablaze with their own luminescence, and a bright crescent moon. Although the painting is exaggerated we can all relate to it. The painting keeps the viewer’s eye moving along the painting, following the curves and creating a visual dot to dot with the stars. This keeps the viewer involved while other factors take hold of them. Below the tumbling hills lies a small town. The mixture of cool dark colors and fiery windows it reminds of our warm childhood imagination of what the night holds for us. The center point of the painting is the large steeple church, reigning largely over the small town; this creates a sense of size. Towards
