Water color painting of the Church at Auber-sur-Oise (updated)

July 26, 2014

Last Tuesday a friend and I went to Auvers-sur-Oise, not to far from Paris.  It is here that Vincent Van Gogh lived his last months.  He died from a gunshot wound, either from his own hand, as we have long thought, but perhaps one of the local teens who’d been harassing him for his odd appearance.

Gogh did a painting of this church,  now a famous piece.   Here is my rendition in memory of this man who contributed so much to art and who received so little in return.  I’d done a pen and ink/water color one a few years ago from a different angle and in preparation I did a sketch beforehand, both below.  I needed to be more or less ready to paint when I get there as I doubt I can sit long enough to start from scratch.   My butt just about died that day sitting on the ground perched against a tree doing the pen and ink. The angle he did it from is the one I sketched a few days before we went. There is nothing to lean against from his angle so my friend  brought chairs. And a bottle of Absinthe.