
The Starry Night is a portrait created by the Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh. The artwork was painted from his view inside the window of a mental asylum. He was placed in the asylum after cutting off one of his ears.  Vincent Van Gogh had suffered a troubled lifetime. Throughout his career, he spent his years in poverty. Not only did he live in poverty, but he also suffered from relationship hardships. His artworks were recognized after he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Van Gogh escapes reality through his artwork by expressing his inner emotions and feelings through the use of different artistic elements of color, brushstroke and location.

Van Gogh’s intricate color usage displayed in The Starry Night is interesting. The colors blue, yellow, and green bring Van Gogh’s emotion into perspective. His emotions are also justified through the painting occurring during nighttime. The color blue is usually associated with the emotion of feeling sad. Bourn states that the color blue could represent depression. “The terms “feeling blue” or “getting the blues” refers to the extreme calm feelings associated with blue, such as sadness and depression”. (Bourn) In the painting, the wind and topography are colored with different shades of blue. The blue contrasts the yellow stars and moon. The yellow attracts the attention of the viewer to gaze upon the stars and the moon. Not only does it contrast in color with the shades of blue and green, the yellow introduces a positive emotion a sign of hope for Van Gogh. “Yellow is the color of sunshine. It’s associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy.” (Bourn) The dark green colors of the vegetation on the hill and houses. The color is rather neutral because the combination between yellow and blue creates green. The contrasting colors mixture of warm and cool colors compliment well. 

The brushstrokes in The Starry Night spices up the painting with texture. It was a style impression gives a sense of abstractness of a mellow feeling in Van Gogh’s paintings. The mellowness from the strokes provides to blend the contrasting colors. Jia Li states that multiple paintings of Van Gogh’s work implements this type of stylistic element. It gives a way of providing a slight three-dimensional view of the painting that provides a depth of field. This element brings out the colors of the painting to connect with the viewer. “Van Gogh was known for his thick application of paint on canvas, called impasto. An Italian word for “paste” or “mixture”, impasto is used to describe a painting technique where paint is laid on so thickly that the texture of brush strokes are clearly visible.” The effects of the impasto on the stars and the moon illuminates glow to the color of yellow in the scenery. The impasto plays a dramatic role in painting the atmosphere, an element of portraying wind flow. 

The location of the asylum makes this picture so significant. The position is elevated that watches over the town. Van Gogh wouldn’t have been at the asylum without the past trouble experiences that would later build up his personality. The personality of Van Gogh and past painting is asserted into the newer painting. The asylum motivated and inspired Van Gogh to create this intricate piece that would later be praised upon artists and viewers until this day. Paulson explains that Van Gogh incarcerated himself to the asylum to stay focus on his works. “During his convalescence there, Van Gogh was encouraged to paint, though he rarely ventured more than a few hundred yards from the asylum's walls”. (Paulson)  We can see that Van Gogh was an introvert and very independent that only depended on his drawings. 

The use of color, stroke, and location helps dictate that Van Gogh was an artist that used artist elements to convey himself. The mixture of contrasting elements is used in a way that blends well together. Without knowing the tragic background of his past we could easily identify it through his works. The art piece speaks to the audience through sight rather than words. Though, the abstractness hidden in the portrait of his arts makes it hard to understand what he is truly conveying. Breaking down the elements piece-by-piece than compare it to the piece itself makes it easier to convey what he is trying to say. Individuals could have different interpretation of the painting. Most interpretation comes from past experiences of the viewers, which dictates the opinions of the “real meaning” behind The Starry Night’s meaning.  We may never know what he is trying to say because he is deceased. Though, by examining his artistic elements we are close to translating his panting.
