Van Gogh Rabbit Holes Large & Small

Interesting discoveries unearthed on my Van Gogh journey are added here as small rabbit holes, that others may find equally interesting and for potential follow-up later. Full articles will also appear as updates.

Nov 03, 2024

Digital Collage with Pinterest, a Major Creative Rabbit Hole

"Admire as much as you can. Most people do not admire enough"...well I certainly spent enough time admiring on Pinterest this weekend!

Had no idea you could create digital collages from ready-made digital 'cutouts' and your own cuts from your own pictures (and even other people's pins which I'm not sure about the ethics of if it's hand-crafted artwork).

Anyway, I stuck to Van Gogh's digital cutouts, namely flowers and grassy paintings, and various rabbits to illustrate the point (another secret love of mine is medieval animals in illuminated manuscripts, especially rabbits and cats...and of course, the jousting snails).

I am quite pleased with my very first digital collage - I now have several more as I figure out ways to use them.

So, whilst you can create some fabulous new Van Gogh-inspired things with AI, and get a buzz from the generative magic, creating a digital collage is you being hands-on creative: you're investing in some quality creativity, which is good for you and your brain.

Prescription: Take 1 dose of creativity, for 20 minutes a day.

Oct 21, 2024

Explore books about Van Gogh - for Beginners & Deep Dives

Hand-picked books about Van Gogh that appeal to beginners and deep divers, in the order they were written and on budget

Continue reading "Explore books about Van Gogh - for Beginners & Deep Dives"

Oct 15, 2024

Van Gogh & Autism

Found an interesting paper from 2022 on signs of autism in Vincent van Gogh, arguing that he exhibited many characteristics consistent with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) from childhood through adulthood, which may explain his well-documented social and behavioural difficulties.

His intense use of colour (later, anyway) is also mentioned as a possible sensory issue, which I find really interesting:

"Vincent had an intense emotional sense of color. He was a passionate advocate of The Law of Simultaneous Contrast [9]. Vincent was indeed an “expressionist.” He always sought to translate his intense subjective experience of nature onto his canvases with likewise vivid colors and vigorous brush strokes. “I want to paint what I feel and feel what I paint.” "

"The Law of Simultaneous Contrast" - this is where colours next to each other interact so as to have an impact on how they are perceived by the human eye, and is another whole rabbit hole in itself.

I vaguely remember this when studying perception and optical illusions at University; being fascinated by how the eye/brain could 'blend colours together', enter pointillism which Vincent tried.

Details of Van Gogh's clinical history is provided, including misdiagnoses of epilepsy and Meniere’s disease, and his struggles with social interactions and relationships, as well as mental health issues.

The authors suggest autism provides a more comprehensive understanding of Van Gogh and his artistic genius, and discusses this with reference to the DSM-5 framework i.e. the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" which is the standard go-to for diagnosing issues.

The paper concludes that for Van Gogh, autism "appears to provide further understanding to his life, art, intense use of color, and artistic output."

The paper is from the International Journal of Forensic Sciences: Friedman SL, et al. Autism Added to Behavioral Profile of Vincent van Gogh. Int J Forens Sci 2022, 7(1): 000255

Oct 13, 2024

Van Gogh Rabbit Hole: Pencils

What pencil did Van Gogh use? That's today's unexpected rabbit hole after a recent interest in his drawings.

This led, no pun intended, into a whole thing about what materials and supplies Vincent mentioned in his letters, including Faber pencils. Who knew, they've been around a long time!

So he mentions Faber in a couple of letters.

In one to Theo (222) in May 1882, where he includes the Roots sketch above, he asks what the old Masters would not have used and "Certainly not with Faber B, BB, BBB" but rather with a piece of rough graphite, similar to carpenter's pencil which can achieve intensities different to Faber; that "I like graphite better in its natural form than cut too fine in those expensive Fabers" but that graphite is grey rather than black and charcoal is best. He also mentions Conte.

However, in a letter to his friend Rappard (354) he has a different take saying "Wanted to tell you about a type of pencil by Faber that I’ve found. Here you see the thickness of the cross-section. [sketch shown]. They’re soft and better quality than the carpenter’s pencils, produce a marvellous black and are very agreeable to work with for large studies."

The accompanying note explains this pencil is a "Försterstift" in German (forester’s pencil), a thick, sturdy pencil that could mark wet wood and it may have been used for a later letter and sketch as well as "Ploughman and three women".

These letters need more time, but this same rabbit hole led me to looking up Anton Mauve, whose paintings are very similar to some that used to be favourites in my house as a kid...if it turns out they were Mauve's I'll be astonished.

To be continued...