Van Gogh 1st Person Overview

My name is Van Gogh. When I was young I worked in a missionary in a poor Belgian mining village. I was never good at any line of work, and the more that I grasped this idea, I found that I would turn to art. Some of my early paintings were done in a refined manner, compared to my later works anyway. One of my most famous early paintings was called "The Potato Eaters." In this piece there is a poor, Belgian mining family gathered around the dinner table. The picture is painted in all browns, drab, or rather earthy colors. The people look like what nourishes them, and that is the potatoes.

In 1886, I moved to Paris with my brother Theo. He saw my talent in art, and gave me an allowance. While I was in Paris I fell under the "spell" of impressionism. The colors that I painted became much brighter, my style less refined, and my paintings more alive and poignant. In 1888, I went on a trip to Arles, France. I was inspired by the bright sunshine, and France offered to me the a landscape of vivid colors. I began to paint fields blanketed in sunshine, flowers, and trees that appear to twist and turn as if they were alive. I began to put my own twist on the impressionistic style, putting emotion into all of my paintings, setting a mood with the way the paint was applied.

During my last two years of life is when most people think I painted my best paintings. I really began to build upon my own style, using short brushstrokes, sweeping, swirling, and choppy strokes to add emotion and effect to my paintings. I never thought one of my paintings through, I just painted what I felt, reflecting my personal emotions, in the art work. Although I put all of this emotion into my paintings, only one of them ever sold during my lifetime.

In my late life I suffered from epilepsy. When I was told that there was no cure, I fell into a deep depression. I lived in fear that my seizures would become more frequent and more severe. My brother Theo

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