010. Vincent Van Gogh: Terrasse des Cafés an der Place du Forum in Arles (Cafe Terrace at Night)

My copy of Vincent Van Gogh Cafe Terrace at Night

Vincent Van Gogh
Cafe Terrace at night
Oil on canvas(80.7 cm × 65.3 cm)

On display at the Kroller-Muller Museum, Netherlands.

Vincent Van Gogh Cafe Terrace at Night

The painting shows a busy nighttime scene of a cafe in Arles. It is also the first introduction of his starry skies.

If you and I were down the pub and Van Gogh came up in conversation, I would be on the side of the pint glass arguing he was the world's most famous amateur painter. I find his work interesting - especially the colours, sometimes clever but I can’t say I am blown away by it. Give me a fallen Madonna with the big boobies over the daisies in the cracked vase anytime. Van Gogh is here as part of my unjustifiable reasoning that I need to include certain artists in this challenge.

Having said that, this is by far the most fun I have had copying a painting so far ( at number 15 at time of writing).

Colours I used in my copy of the painting

I first want to talk about colour. I have said before that I don’t believe you need to copy colours exact for a copy to be successful. You do however have to match its tonal voice. What is interesting about Van Gogh's choice in his picture is the absence of black; Instead, Prussian Blue (another equaliser paint along with Burnt Sienna and Payne's grey) is used in its place. This is important as it turns the painting from being a dark to a warm summer night. It turns the background form being harsh, to one that vanishes into the distance.  The yellow is also important acting both as a light source and a reflection on certain surfaces. I tried to represent this by using Cadmium Yellow and Titanate yellow.

The flow of the painting process

Secondly, and this is what has made this so fun to copy. Throughout this process, I am becoming more and more aware of the flow of painting -  how the artist approached it. As a disclaimer, I am at the start of learning about this. I am not even going to pretend I understand it and I don’t know enough about art techniques to really comment on it. It could also be a total fluke and I am talking bollocks. With that in mind, there is definitely a method in Van Gogh’s madness.

I found I got into a natural flow when painting and it allowed us to play and experiment with the painting. Unusual, given the fact I am copying, I found I had a certain degree of freedom. If i made a mistake, ie the yellow jacket man was in the wrong place, I could easily just turn him into some cobbles and turn some cobbles into him.

With this luxury, I was also able to give some impasto ago. Sadly, when I went to varnish the painting, my impasto marks got lost and now look like blobs of snot, but I can live with that.

I am going to keep Van Gogh in my back pocket. If I have a disaster or two I will bring him out and see what happens.