In Provence, we stayed in a town called St. Remy. It’s where Van Gogh lived for a year when he admitted himself to an asylum. He did many paintings of nature there. After I visited his bedroom on the grounds, I began to do this drawing of the olive groves in front of the building where Vincent painted. A family of chinese tourists came out and were super excited to see another insane artist actually creating art. Two for the price of one. As the dad was looking through my sketchbook, he suddenly demanded that I sell it to him. I told him I had a few blank pages left and needed it for my trip. He demanded I give him a price, any price. I informed him I had 2 books of my iilustration out and he could get them on Amazon. That was not good enough, he wanted this real one. As some point, he realized it wasn’t going to happen. Instead he asked if they could each take a turn sitting next to me while I drew to take a photo. No problemo. In the end, dad was happy with photos of his kids with the unknown, insane artist in front of the museum where the very famous insane artist painted. A good time was had by all.
