Artist turns himself into a Van Gogh

An artist has created a masterpiece in make-up by transforming himself into a Vincent Van Gogh self-portrait. James Birbeck decided to become the 19th century artist after friends pointed out the similarity.

He bought clothes from a second-hand store and used whatever paints and make-up he could find in his home to complete the project. Mr Birbeck, who born in Manchester but now lives in Edmonton, Canada, said: "Someone pointed out to me a few years ago that one of Van Gogh's self-portraits reminded them of me.



"I agreed. And after reading a biography about Vincent, I noted our personalities are also much alike. Using a fine paint brush, it took me about 2.5 hours to apply the make-up. I used whatever I had lying around: some cheap grease paint, nearly empty tubes of acrylic paint and the remnants of an old can of latex house paint.

"The jacket I purchased from a thrift store, but I didn't notice until I got it home that it had been used as a toilet by a cat. I tried dry cleaning it and spraying it with cat pee remover, but nothing worked on it. The smell was gagging me the entire time I worked on the jacket." Mr Birbeck added: "Ever since I was a very small child, I have dressed myself up in costumes and make-up to transform myself into different personae."