A Year With Vincent Van Gogh

In 2017 I spent a year studying Vincent Van Gogh. And as well as creating a bust of Vincent I painted 67 oil paintings. And here is Vincent's story, my story and I hope a story that speaks to you. Van Gogh's work is not just his paintings but also his writings. His story. This book will tell that story and the tragic beauty it can still show us. Van Gogh has also helped me to find my own "voice", the style in which you tell your story. The hardest thing for an artist to do is to find a new style. I used the last years of Vincent's late 19th century life to compare with the life of an early 21st century artist (my own). I used Vincent to help me to address my Mid-Life Crisis – which I believe parallels the crisis our world is now facing. Vincent was a "heroic" artist questing for beauty through truth and truth through beauty. That artist is now disassociated from modern live and is superficial – but is still represents a source of hope– despite the futility of that hope. There are a number of aspects of Van Gogh's life that I identify with, though I don't see my work as equal to the genius of his work, I just hope to make an interesting and beautiful comment on it. I believe that Van Gogh's work has helped me to see the world and nature in a fresh way to deepen and enrich my life. Vincent had a spiritual belief that affirmed life and nature. His work appeals because of its spiritual vision of a nature. There is a positive harmony of mankind and nature that is created through a rhythm of unified brush-strokes. I tried for many years to convey religious messages about art. Van Gogh had worked as a preacher before becoming and artist and I was "preaching" and no one was listening. I'd worked restoring churches in Israel and Palestine, then had created art about different faiths and been an activist for art employment rights. This art had fallen on deaf ears. And then I found, after spending a year studying the work of Vincent Van Gogh, that my most effective sermons were just through beautiful art. As I got older I became more interested in family history and empathise with the lives of other generations. Then, whilst on holiday, I visited the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam where there were no sculptures of Vincent. With so many different looking paintings of Vincent I wanted the challenge of combining the images to create the closest image of him that I could.