'Van Gogh's use of yellow is considered to derive from the sun, and appears to be related to an ambivalence to his father, as expressed in sun worship, while the complementary colours red and green were correlated with his bisexuality and castration anxiety.
Light signified to him the Sun of the South, lightness of spirit in addition to friendship and love. Van Gogh used yellow in context with its complementary color - blue. He saw power and the entirety of life in the combination of both colors (cf. Wheat fields with crows, 1890).
How to use colour like Van Gogh – Palette. For Starry Night, van Gogh drew colour from his proven – but often toxic – palette. He was a heavy user of both Zinc Yellow and Chrome Yellow, often combining the two.
Vincent wanted to know more about how colours work. He studied lots of books on colour theory, from which he learned that complementary colours – red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange – intensify one another. Vincent now understood the theoretical principles behind these colour pairs.
The Potato Eaters by Vincent van Gogh, 1885. As a young painter in Holland, he had loved yellow and used it liberally in his early paintings, as in The Potato Eaters and Lane with Poplars, Nuenen.
Vincent Van Gogh is well known for his yellow addiction, which might be related to a health condition [1]. There are several theories about his possible diseases, including epilepsy, Meniere's disease, and acute intermittent porphyria [2,3,4,5,6].
Yellow is a color associated with sun. It symbolizes optimism, energy, joy, happiness and friendship. It might also stand for intellect. On the contrary, yellow can indicate jealousy, betrayal, illness and danger. It is strongly associated with food, often evoking cheerful feelings.
In letters to his brother, Theo, Van Gogh wrote about the yellow of sunshine, and "how beautiful yellow is!"; he also confessed that he felt helpless at not being able to capture the full force of the light of Arles.
Some famous artists such as Constable, Picasso and Van Gogh are thought to have been colour blind and yet were very successful.
Van Gogh's use of colors
Van Gogh never used real colors. On the contrary, he used colors that could affect the audience's emotions. He first used dark colors such as olive green, raw sienna and raw umber. Then he added bright colors to the color palette of his paintings.
The Prominent Hues of Blue and Yellow
These two colors were among Van Gogh's favorite as he used them in most of his paintings. Blue and yellow are complementary colors. When combined, they have an intense effect because one color absorbs light in specific wavelengths while reflecting others.
Why Van Gogh used such amount of blue? Not only to paint the own color of the objects themselves, but also to express his emotion. Blue represents a depressing atmosphere that Van Gogh felt. Here, seven images of Starry Night were magnified to see how Van Gogh did his exclusive color scheme.
The pigment analysis has shown that the sky was painted with ultramarine and cobalt blue, and for the stars and the moon, Van Gogh employed the rare pigment indian yellow together with zinc yellow. Details of Van Gogh's The Starry Night exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art of New York.
Van Gogh spent two years painting in Paris where he met, and was inspired by, French Impressionists of the time. He began to express himself with bright warm colors, contrasting the browns and greys found in his work thus far. Another inspiration was the vibrant, rural imagery of Japanese woodblock prints.
The 'Indian Yellow' -- used by Vincent Van Gogh to paint 'Starry Night' -- was created by the urine of wasting cows, who were allegedly force-fed nothing other than mango leaves in Munger, Bihar.
Van Gogh had effectively been quarantined by his neighbours. After slashing off most of his ear he was regarded, quite unfairly, as dangerous to others—and the police ordered him to be sent hospital. He was forced to leave his beloved home, the Yellow House.
The condition is most common among people of Northern European descent, especially those from Scandinavia and Ireland. The most common form of color blindness is red-green color blindness, which affects about 1 in 12 men (8 percent) and 1 in 200 women.
In a 2006 interview, Bill Gates had revealed he is color blind. Bill Gates typically tends to use the color black.
Best known for his roles in Speed and The Matrix, Canadian actor Keanu Reeves is reportedly color blind.
Yellow is the emotional color. It represents creativity, friendliness, optimism, and confidence. Incorporate yellow when you want to stimulate positivity, creativity and happiness.
One of Indian Yellow's most famous users, however, was Van Gogh, who famously painted a luminous Indian yellow moon in his 1889 masterpiece, The Starry Night.
What Is Xanthophobia? Fear of the color yellow, xanthophobia is one type of a specific phobia known as chromophobia, which refers more broadly to phobias of colors. The term xanthophobia is derived from the Greek words xanth (yellow) and phobia (fear).
Color Psychology: How Yellow Affects Your Mood? Yellow color is associated with sunshine, hope, laughter, warmth, happiness, and energy. Yellow is found to make a person feel spontaneous and happy. A splash of yellow on anything dull or dark can make a person feel cheerful and optimistic.
Yellow Is Energetic
It is often used in situations and products intended to create a sense of excitement or energy. It is bright and immediately grabs the eye. It can seem fresh, intense, overwhelming, or even brash and forceful in its energy.
Color psychology suggests that yellow have an influence on the left side of our brain, where deep thinking and perception dwells. Yellow is the color of high energy, enthusiasm, hope, fun, and cheerfulness, Although yellow can also induce states of anxiety creating feelings of frustration and anger.