‘Self Portrait’ – Vincent van Gogh,
1887, 32,5cm x 41cm, oil on artist’s board, mounted on cradled panel
Years ago when at art school a teacher was critiquing one of my figure studies. He commented on my inclination to overstate colors and contrasts. He said, maybe jokingly, that it comes with the red hair; red haired artists often paint excessively colorful.
If there is in fact a correlation between hair color and artistic expression, it’d be interesting to know if it’s genetic or because of social structures. I’d bet on the latter. Everyone seems to have an opinion on red haired people, and this will inevitably affect us in some ways. If putting awesomeness into what we do is a consequence of the prosecution we endure, I’d say it’s one of the less adverse.
