What painting technique is Van Gogh famous for using thick layers of paint? Impasto.
Impasto is a technique in which paint is applied so thickly that brushstrokes or palette-knife marks remain visible and the surface gains physical relief. Van Gogh used it especially forcefully, making paint itself part of a picture’s expressive language. In works such as The Starry Night and Wheatfield with Cypresses, ridges of pigment help convey wind, movement, light and emotional intensity.
Van Gogh was not the inventor of impasto. Earlier artists, including Rembrandt and Titian, used heavily built-up paint, but Van Gogh made the approach central to his late nineteenth-century style. His vivid colors and energetic, directional strokes made thick paint immediately recognizable.
A common mix-up is Pointillism, which uses separate dots or small marks of color, and chiaroscuro, which describes dramatic light-dark contrast. Sfumato instead creates softly blended transitions. Impasto describes the physical thickness and texture of the paint, regardless of the colors or subject.