I wanted to walk in Picasso’s footsteps and needed to learn Spanish better first so that I could get off
the tourist path. I spent a year before my first trip to Spain studying Spanish in Latin America. One
country I studied in was Ecuador where I lived with a family Fabian was my adopted padre. On a visit
a couple years later I gave him this painting.
Painted after Van Gogh. Portrait of Dr. Gachet.
Dr. Gachet watched over Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise. Van Gogh painted two versions. In 1990, the other version sold for $82.5 million. I sold this painting for a much, much, smaller fortune. Ironically, I still got more for my painting than Van Gogh got for his – of course he was dead….
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France. Dr. Gachet by Vincent Van Gogh
Even though the painting has intentional symbolic representations varying in degrees of disclosure, one was quite unintentional – at least by the artist.
Being unsatisfied with the way Willie‘s shirt looked in the area shown in the enlarged box (left), MacDonald repainted it two more times. After the third time, he still was not sure it was right, and decided to come back to it later. Then, when the time came to decide if he should make any changes there, a Mystic Face (in profile view) was instantly recognized and served as a sign to MacDonald that this area was complete. Later, upon showing his baffling discovery to others, they did not see the profile view (at first), but saw the same face from the front.
It is not uncommon to hear “gasps” and “awes” from spectators after The Mystic Face in profile view, turns, and looks them straight in the eyes!
What is the significance?
MacDonald: “I am not sure if The Mystic Face has any meaning or not. It did however, give me chills when I first recognized it because the face just seemed to appear before my eyes. I could not, and would not, paint over it for anything. The fact that Willie Nelson is part Native American is enough to give it significance to me.”
This is one of my favorite paintings. I painted it in about 10 minutes. I have paintings that I have spent
days, even weeks or more on, then absolutely hated them….
I painted this painting after Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows, in Auvers-sur-Oise, the town where he died and is buried. It was one of his last paintings.
On my final day there, I wanted to get a symbolic picture of my painting on his grave. The day was very dreary, but I thought I would try to get what I could of the picture. Van Gogh’s grave was a several mile walk from my horse stable domicile.
Midway on the journey, even before reaching Église Notre-Dame d’Auvers, the sky got very dark and the wind began blowing fiercely (like the strong mistral winds in Arles that Van Gogh so detested). Next, strikes of lightning flashed across the sky followed by very loud cracks of thunder. The painting was not completely dry and I tried to protect it as best I could, while fighting it from flapping in the wind and rain. I contemplated retreating to the horse stable because it was getting suspiciously eerie – I wondered if I was getting some sign not to go ahead with my plan.
After a brief pause, and a squinted look upward at an even darker sky, I decided to persevere anyway. Continuing my questionable trek to the cemetery, as it appeared on the horizon, the thunder and lightning dwindled. The winds calmed and the sun began shooting beams of golden rays thru the clouds. By the time I got to Van Gogh’s grave, the sun was fully shining and it was a beautiful day!!! I took this as my sign that it was ok…Merci beaucoup Vincent! Et évidemment L’Omnipotent!
It's an incredible feeling to lay down by side Van Gogh's tomb and look up at the Starry Night...
La Joconde (Mona Lisa). Painted in Florence by Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance. There
is always a crowd in Musee Du Louvre. Everywhere there are signs that say “No Flash!” And there are
guards on both sides of the painting, and yet there are flashes going off all the time? La Joconde was
stolen before and it is my belief that the French are too afraid to put the real painting on public display
so it doesn’t matter…..
