The expressive works of Vincent Van Gogh inspired me to take brush in my hand and create. During the pandemic, I struggled with my mental health as I know a lot of us did, and I started looking for ways to express my feelings through a healthy outlet. Growing up in Saint-Petersburg, which is known as the Cultural Capital of Russia, I regularly was able to experience many talented artists creations, surrounded by the beautiful architecture and arts museums of the city. I took some classes in high school on watercolor, but never thought I could try to conquer painting on canvas.
I first learned about Vincent Van Gogh and his work from my mother, who deeply admired his paintings, she would always tell me about his beautiful works and one of her prized possessions is his autobiography, a rare book in the USSR when she got it. She finally took me with her to see some of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings when they were lent to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. It was love from first sight! I loved his bright colors and unique shapes and forms; his works were different from those academic paintings I always saw in my birth countries art galleries. They spoke to me through the expression and touched strings of my soul. But it was not until 2 years ago, near the beginning of the pandemic, when I fully discovered Van Gogh and the impressionism movement for myself.
On one of the gloomy winter afternoons, I stumbled upon a book in the bookstore about the life and work of Van Gogh. This is where my journey as an artist truly begins. I learned that he was self-taught artist who struggled in life and suffered from depression. I also realize that most of his best work was created while he was institutionalized and his paintings are expressions of his feelings. He never made it big while he was alive, but found fame after his passing and influenced so many modern artists of the 20th Century.
Around 1911, some art critics invented the phrase “post-impressionistic” to describe the work of several artists who changed Impressionistic standards. Post-impressionism was a new movement followed by a group of artists in search of new ways to create art. The movement shifted standards of Impressionism in favor of more ambitious expression of color and light. Those artists created styles that influenced additional abstract styles and lay the foundation to the 20th Century Modernism.
Post-Impressionists artists took impressionists standards to the next level: putting extreme emphasis on the movement of color and light rather than concentrating on the significance of the artwork. Artists set a goal to find more depth in the roles of color, form, and solidity in their painting. This brought more powerful, bright, and contrasting colors to life and experimented with properties of brushstrokes.
Post-impressionism used ideas from impressionism, such as using brilliant colors and broken brushstrokes, but went away from painting scenes exactly as they appeared. The goal of Artists who fall under this post-impressionism style is to express more than just visual interpretation but also portray emotion and intellectual meaning in addition to imagination. Paintings in post-impressionism style tend to show more expression and emotion as well as additional form and structure. The most famous post-expressionism paintings have expressionistic qualities and often abnormal use of color to portray the emotional state of the painter.
Vincent Van Gogh was the most influential post-impressionist Dutch painter. His work influenced expressionism in modern art. Van Gogh’s desire to create stunning works of art came from within, as well as his desire to reach those around him through his paintings. Vincent Van Gogh was influential in expressionism because his work is filled with emotions, mostly due to the fact that he suffered from depression. His brushwork, curvy forms, and color is a reflection of his feelings as he painted. He developed his impasto technique which provided his paintings a sense of energy through plain texture surface. Van Gogh used color as a means to express emotions and add symbolism to the paintings rather than use it to reproduce light and literal surroundings. Vincent Van Gogh’s work is still very influential in the work of modern artist, including mine, and continues to be an inspiration for so many of us.
Van Gogh’s journey and his work helped me to realize that I too could try express myself through color, bring something new or even develop my own painting style, and I didn’t even have to be academically taught on how to hold a brush. I can just create and hope that my art will touch a fraction of the hearts that Van Gogh did, or even just one, all while expressing myself and working to improve my own well-being.
