Vincent Van Gogh: "I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process"..

▻ There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.

▻ The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.

▻ I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process.

▻ Ho messo il cuore e l'anima nel mio lavoro, e ho perso la testa nel processo.

▻ It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.

▻ I would rather die of passion than of boredom.

▻ If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

▻ I don’t know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream.

Albert Einstein: "La creatività è contagiosa. Trasmettila!"

▻ La logica ti porta da A a B. L'immaginazione ti porta ovunque!
▻ La creatività è contagiosa. Trasmettila!
▻ L'arte è l'espressione del pensiero più profondo nel modo più semplice.
▻ L'immaginazione è più importante della conoscenza. La conoscenza è limitata, l'immaginazione abbraccia il mondo.
▻ Per perdere la testa, bisogna averne una!

Frédéric Blaimont, 1949 | Genre painter

Living in South West France, Frédéric Blaimont exhibits mainly in galleries in France and Europe.

Blaimont studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris and at the l'École d’Art Graphique (Kunstgewerbeschule) of Basel, Switzerland, in the early 70s.

Through his characters, Fréderic Blaimont translates real life in a tender yet uncompromising manner.

Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scevola (Symbolist painter, 1871-1950)

Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola was a French painter🎨. He is known for his pioneering leadership of the Camoufleurs (the French Camouflage Department) in World War I.

De Scévola was a student of Fernand Cormon and Pierre Dupuis at the École des beaux-arts de Paris.

De Scévola was a pastellist, remarkable for his silky, velvety and smooth style.

"Making his only aesthetic concern accuracy of the most naked kind" (E. Benézit), he left an extensive body of work including scenes of alcoves, landscapes, flowers and society portraits.

Felix Mas (Spanish painter, 1935)

Felix Mas considers himself a traditionalist, obsessed with form and color, creating images that celebrate femininity and luminous beauty of the female form.

Mas uses his paintbrush to convey emotion. It is his gift. Born in Barcelona, he trained at both the Artes y Oficios and the Escuela Superior de San Jorge, then furthered his artistic education with extensive travels throughout Europe and the United States, eventually returning to his native Barcelona to work.

For Mas, painting implies color, emotion and impression. His works, he says, are “infinite”.

Ernest Hébert (1817-1908) | Academic painter

Antoine Auguste Ernest Hébert was a French🎨 academic painter.

Ernest Hébert was born into the era of Romanticism, and began his career just as Realism was emerging.

The young man from Grenoble had been expected to take up his father's profession as a notary. Lessons with his private teacher, Benjamin Rolland, a pupil of David and curator at the Musée de Grenoble, revealed his early talent.

After a classical training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he won the Grand Prix de Rome🎨 for History Painting, he found fame with "La Mal'aria🎨" at the 1850 Salon🎨.

Vincent van Gogh | Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Vincent van Gogh | Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888

"The sight of the stars always makes me dream in as simple a way as the black spots on the map, representing towns and villages, make me dream.

Why, I say to myself, should the spots of light in the firmament be less accessible to us than the black spots on the map of France?

Just as we take the train to go to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to go to a star’, wrote Vincent to his brother Theo in 1888.

Vincent Van Gogh | The Starry Night | Saint Rémy, June 1889 | MoMa

Vincent Van Gogh | The Starry Night | Saint Rémy, June 1889 | MoMa - Museum of Modern Art, New York

"The Starry Night" is probably Vincent van Gogh🎨's most famous painting. Instantly recognizable because of its unique style, this work has been the subject of poetry, fiction, CD-ROMs as well as the well known song "Vincent" or "Starry, Starry Night" by Don McLean.

While there's no denying the popularity of Starry Night, it's also interesting to note that there is very little known about Vincent's own feelings toward his work. This is mainly due to the fact that he only mentions it in his letters🎨 to Theo twice (Letters 595 and 607), and then only in passing.

In his correspondence with his brother, Vincent would often discuss specific works in great detail, but not so in the case of "Starry Night".

Why?

It's difficult to say.