The Process of a Genius

9th May 2016

I saw a sketch today of Vincent Van Gogh and it made me think. So often we just see the stunning finished work of these great masterpieces but never the process. I think that the process reveals so much about the mind behind. I have gathered together some drawings of Dutch artist Van Gogh who took drawing so seriously he pretty much did nothing else for the first 3 years of his career. He believed this would give him a firm foundation to become a great artist. Van Gogh is a draftsman first, his paintings are like drawings with paint and seeing his sketches allows us to peek at the core of his process.

Van Gogh drawing of boats
“Boats Being Loaded”
Vincent Van Gough's sketch of Haystacks near a farm
“Haystacks Near a Farm”

Hi drawings have just as much movement and energy as his paintings do. They also seem wonderfully basic – just lines on a page, light and dark – but they bring forth the beginning of something great.

Café Au Charbonnage - To Theo Van Gogh (Vincent's brother) from Laken (near Brussels)
“Café Au Charbonnage” – To Theo Van Gogh (Vincent’s brother) from Laken (near Brussels)
Van Gogh sketch for The rock of Montmajour with pine trees
sketch for “The rock of Montmajour with pine trees”

It is interesting for me to look at his stenches as I have always been drawn to his work because of the colour. Colour is such a magnet to me, be that nature, art, fashion or spaces, it is actually quite interesting to consider the form without the colour.

Vincent van Gogh: Starry Night. Drawing. Saint-Remy: June, 1889.
“Starry Night” Saint-Remy: June, 1889

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