This film is in English, click here to watch the version in Mandarin: https://www.aonia.com/vincent-van-gogh-techniques-of-the-masters-in-mandarin

FILM DESCRIPTION
This film, from Aonia, focuses on the painting techniques of Vincent van Gogh (1853-90) and shows how, in the late nineteenth century, some pioneering artists eschewed drawing and moved away from naturalism to focus instead on color as the means of expressing emotion and mood.

In van Gogh’s painting of his chair, the chair itself seems simple and the perspective a little skewed - but the painting is in fact a tour-de-force of sophistication. The paint handling is loose but not messy. The colors are vibrant and rich but not strident, they are balanced and yet pushed to their limits. The colors and color relationships are not naturalistic but artistic.

This is the translation of a sophisticated eye - nothing is slapdash or left to chance. The drawing and balance of the composition is structured in a way that shows how a simple subject can be turned into a piece of artwork.

ARTWORK EXPLORED
Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh’s chair. 1888.
Oil on canvas. The National Gallery, London

PRESENTER: Ann Witheridge
Ann Witheridge studied art history at Christ’s College, Cambridge University, UK, before moving to Italy to study art full-time. She has been teaching the craft of drawing and painting in the atelier tradition for over twenty years: first at Charles H. Cecil Studios, then as a co-founder of Lavender Hill Studios and now at London Fine Art Studios in the UK.

Ann loves teaching, drawing and painting in equal measure. She regularly writes for art periodicals and has given workshops in museums across the UK, France, USA and Africa.