van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam: New Exhibit!

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van Gogh Museum
New Exhibit: van Gogh and the colours of the night
Dates: February 13, 2009 – June 7, 2009

Museum exhibit description:
"Van Gogh and the colours of the night is a unique exhibition of paintings by Vincent van Gogh evoking the atmosphere of the evening and night. The exhibition will be organised in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York."

Here are some van Gogh paintings to familiarize yourself with his amazing work!

My Favorite Museums for Impressionistic Art!

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Click on the museum name to visit their website and learn more!

Norton Simon Museum
Collections: European Art: 19th Century
Pasadena, CA
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I grew up in the Pasadena area and have always enjoyed this museum. For a small museum, they have a great collection. They have many famous Degas paintings and the ballerina sculpture. They have new exhibits for different types of art quite often. I highly recommend this museum if you are in the area. Enjoy!

National Gallery of Art
Collection: French Painting of the 19th Century
Washington, DC
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I currently live in the DC metropolitan area and have visited this museum several times. It is big and has many Impressionism paintings and sculptures throughout the museum. This is a great place to get lost and learn a lifetime of history and art!


The Art Institute of Chicago
Current Exhibit & Collection: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Collection
Chicago, IL
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This museum recently brought back this exhibit. I have seen it personally and they have some great paintings. If you are planning a trip to Chicago, this is a museum you should go see. Like the National Gallery of Art, there is a lot to see there.

The History of Impressionism

Accoring to Wikipedia...

"Radicals in their time, early Impressionists broke the rules of academic painting. They began by giving colours, freely brushed, primacy over line, drawing inspiration from the work of painters. They also took the act of painting out of the studio and into the world. Previously, still lifes and portraits as well as landscapes had usually been painted indoors.The Impressionists found that they could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by painting en plein air. Painting realistic scenes of modern life, they emphasized vivid overall effects rather than details. They used short, "broken" brush strokes of pure and unmixed colour, not smoothly blended, as was customary, in order to achieve the effect of intense colour vibration.

By re-creating the sensation in the eye that views the subject, rather than recreating the subject, and by creating a welter of techniques and forms, Impressionism became seminal to various movements in painting which would follow, including Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism."

To learn more about the history of Impressionism, visit Wikipedia.org and/or watch the video below. I hope this inspires you to learn more about Impressionist.

Painting Tutorial

If you have been inspired by Impressionism and want to incorporate the art into your life, there a many painting classes you can take to learn how to use oil paint and apply it to canvas. The best places you can look for a painting classes are:

1. Local Art Centers or Institutes
2. Community Recreation Center
3. Community College
4. The internet! There are many tutorials
5. Art stores (Michaels, AC Moore, and other stores have monthly calendars)

Below is a video for a painting tutorial. It provides you with the idea and feel of how to start a painting with a drawing and make it come to life with color and texture. Enjoy!

Favorite Painings

My favorite Impressionist artists are: Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and Edgar Degas. Below are some of my favorite paintings from each of these artists. Each artists uses color in a wonderful way and have incredible brush strokes that give life to the painting. After taking a painting class last year, I painted van Gogh's "Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers" (original below). I love the bright colors of the flowers and the thick paint gives the painting a lot of texture. I'd love to hear which Impressionism artists and/or paintings are your favorite!

Click on the picture below to find out about the painting and its artist!

Vincent van Gogh.....................................Claude Monet

Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflower (1888).......... Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lillies (1899)

Vincent van Gogh
The Starry Night (1889)

Edgar Degas
Ballet Rehersal (1873)

Welcome

Welcome to my first post!
This is your guide to gaining factual information about Impressionistic Art, getting inspired to paint, finding great museums to view this art, and Impressionism in the world today.