{"id":1088,"date":"2012-12-17T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/small-vase.flywheelsites.com\/?p=1088"},"modified":"2017-03-18T10:11:19","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T16:11:19","slug":"van-goghs-painting-technique-impasto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.vangoghgallery.com\/index.php\/en\/2012\/12\/17\/van-goghs-painting-technique-impasto\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Gogh\u2019s Painting Technique: Impasto"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Impasto is a painting term that refers to the use of thickly textured, undiluted, paint that appears almost three-dimensional on the canvas.\u00a0 When an artist uses the impasto technique they usually leave visible brush strokes on the finished painting.\u00a0 They apply the undiluted color to the canvas, frequently with a palette knife, and mix colors on the canvas to attain the desired color.\u00a0 When the painting is viewed from the side the paint is seen sticking out from the canvas in globs.<\/p>\n<p>The appearance of an impasto painting is greatly impacted by the lighting in the room.\u00a0 Due to the raised surface on the canvas, light is reflected and shadows are created based on the natural light in the space.\u00a0 Expressionists used the impasto technique for its expressive traits and to draw attention to a certain aspect of the work.<\/p>\n<p>Van Gogh is said to be a pioneer in using the impasto technique.\u00a0 Van Gogh used impasto not just to add dimension to his paintings but to add emotion and movement.\u00a0 We see this movement in the swirling clouds of <em>Wheat Field with Cypresses<\/em> and <em>Starry Night<\/em>.\u00a0 The same colors and images could have been created with a traditional painting technique but the movement and emotion of the painting would be missing.<\/p>\n<p>In numerous letters, Van Gogh mentions his use of impasto.\u00a0 In a letter to his brother, Theo, on September 2, 1882 Van Gogh wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cSometimes the subject calls for less paint, sometimes the material, the nature of the subjects themselves demands impasto.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Letter Source:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"webexhibits\" href=\"http:\/\/www.webexhibits.org\/vangogh\/letter\/11\/228.htm\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.webexhibits.org\/vangogh\/letter\/11\/228.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a title=\"Wheatfield with Cypresses\" href=\"http:\/\/www.vangoghgallery.com\/catalog\/Painting\/748\/Wheat-Field-with-Cypresses.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 200px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.vangoghgallery.com\/catalog\/image\/0743\/Wheat-Field-with-Cypresses.jpg\" alt=\"Wheatfield with Cypresses\" width=\"200\" align=\"left\" border=\"2\" hspace=\"2\" vspace=\"2\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a title=\"Starry Night\" href=\"http:\/\/www.vangoghgallery.com\/catalog\/Painting\/508\/Starry-Night.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 200px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.vangoghgallery.com\/catalog\/image\/0612\/Starry-Night.jpg\" alt=\"Starry Night\" width=\"200\" align=\"left\" border=\"2\" hspace=\"2\" vspace=\"2\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Impasto is a painting term that refers to the use of thickly textured, undiluted, paint that appears almost three-dimensional on the canvas.\u00a0 When an artist uses the impasto technique they usually leave visible brush strokes on the finished painting.\u00a0 They apply the undiluted color to the canvas, frequently with a palette knife, and mix colors&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155,7],"tags":[17,21,30],"class_list":["post-1088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-more-van-gogh","category-van-gogh-paintings","tag-starry-night","tag-van-gogh","tag-van-gogh-painting"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Van Gogh\u2019s Painting Technique: Impasto -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.vangoghgallery.com\/index.php\/en\/2012\/12\/17\/van-goghs-painting-technique-impasto\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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