Van Gogh vs. Margaret Olley Comparative Analysis

Comparative Essay of Van Gogh and Margaret Olley (Image 1) Olley’s Poppies and checkered cloth (Image 2) Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (Image 3) Van Gogh’s Vine Yards Margaret Olley and Van Gogh are two of the most well-known impressionists of their time. With more than a century between their eras, they both played significant roles in the progressing development of art today. Similarly painting still life’s and portraits, they also used the same media types and painted what they were surrounded by. For example, rooms of the houses they lived in, flowers and places they travelled. This comparative essay will compare and outline these two famous artists and the similarities between two of their most†¦show more content†¦The flowers face many angles and are all different, most have contrasting shades of green leaves surrounding the petals and varying stem widths and lengths. This creates interest throughout the painting. To complement the bright yellow flower petals, Van Gogh has detailed a baby blue background with small, vertical and horizontal brush strokes. This contrasts well with the yellow flowers and helps to separate them from the yellow foreground. Also, to break all the yellow sections, he has cleverly used a lighted yellow tint on the bottom half of the vase, rather than shades, which he has used to outline the petals of the flowers. In doing this and by also adding light to the front petals and vase, Van Gogh has added a third dimension to his painting. Like Olley, Van Gogh has painted this artwork in warm colours to create a joyful and uplifting artwork to look at. As famous post-impressionists of their time, both Olley and Van Gogh have executed their artworks in a stylistic manner. Their use of the impressionistic characteristics such as relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes most evident on the flowers and throughout the backgrounds in both of their paintings. Another example of a distinguishing impressionistic characteristic is their emphasis on the accurate depiction of light. Olley has effectively used this technique throughout the painting, mostly seen on the front poppies petals, the wine canter and the vase. Van Gogh has also used this