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Vincent and Lines
I want to apologize for what I wrote last time about confining the painted images with lines as something undesirable. My hero, Vincent van Gogh did just that. How could I miss it?
When Vincent was young, and before his attempt to be a preacher failed, he worked for his art dealer uncle. His art education probably started from there and then. He knew what good art was about. Wandering around, at 27, he decided that he wanted to be an artist. His earlier painting style echoed that of his favorite painters, Millet and Breton. Vincent's paintings in that period were heavy, dark and old-styled, but it was his nevertheless; his talent as an artist was obvious. Before Vincent was 30 he already produced more than 200 paintings as well as numerous drawings and watercolors. But when his brother, Theo, introduced him to the then contemporary painters such as Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Degas and Gauguin, etc. his work took on a different dimension. He started using brighter and livelier colors, with which, and before he killed himself at the age of 37, he left us nearly a thousand of his paintings which dazzle our minds and eyes.
Vincent seemed to draw the subjects in painstaking detail, sometimes over and over again in pen and ink before he started painting them in oil. If we should print his colorful oil paintings in black and white, we'll see that they're similar to pen and ink drawings. That's how good he was - being truthful to the values and using colors as values. His paintings are full of textures created by the lines that tell the story. He did not just paint what was in front of his eyes; he chose what's best to give an impact for the subject matter, and that required masterful knowledge about color theory and a keen eye for good composition.
He painted his paintings thoughtfully; he wasn't crazy in that sense.
Nothing else can better demonstrate the often-said "draw as you paint" notion than Vincent's paintings. He understood that if his drawing worked, than he didn't need to deviate much from it when he painted. He used lines to show the viewer how graceful the trees danced and the leaves shimmered; the grass moved with the wind as the earth heaved up and down; the sun rays gave and the clouds sailed. They move me to tears as if I am seeing through his eyes.
My guess is that Vincent either painted within the lines he drew or he reiterated the lines after painting the colors. The lines tell the story; they are delightful, innocent and childlike. It's like going around in a circle and coming home.
What's coming home if not going around as humans? Vincent is home....
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