“It didn’t really come as a surprise after all the reactions I received this week,” says Jantje Hartman from Klazienaveen after her election. Her painting was chosen as the winner of ‘Van Gogh in Drenthe’ and will be on display at the grain silo in Nieuw-Amsterdam/Veenoord for the next five years.
Together with sixteen other amateur artists who are affiliated with Stichting De Nachtwacht in Emmen, Hartman submitted a portrait of Vincent van Gogh. Her inspiration? A photo she found on the internet of a man who looks like Vincent van Gogh.
The 69-year-old Hartman estimates that she spent about eight hours creating her artwork. “It all happens in intervals. Then half an hour, then an hour. It doesn’t go in one piece,” she explains.
The amateur artists were commissioned to give a Drenthe twist to Vincent van Gogh. “I showed Drenthe in the clothes and hat I painted,” says Hartman.
According to the winner, it will be a challenge to get the portrait on the grain silo. “My painting must of course be much larger than it is now.” She expects to hear next week when her artwork will be placed on the grain silo near Nieuw-Amsterdam/Veenoord.
She has also received an invitation to be there when the portrait is placed on the grain silo. But whether she goes up with it, she thinks about that for a while. “It’s quite high, that must be about eight meters.”