Title: Chapelle Sainte Sixte near Eygalieres - Provence, France

Artist: W. Randolph Chitwood, Jr. M.D.

Date: 2019

Medium: photographic print on canvas

Dimensions: 17 1/2" x 30"

Vincent Van Gogh painted the Romanesque Chapelle Sainte Sixte during the 1889-1890 period when he was a patient at the Asylum of St. Paul-de-Mausole near St. Remy-de-Provence. It was built (1155 AD) on the site of a Roman temple dedicated to Sylvanus, a tutelary deity of woods and fields.

"For 35 years I've been a cardiac surgeon with a passion for photography. My love of photography spans more than 50 years when as a child my father, a country general practitioner, and I built a darkroom - and the rest became history. The miracle of fine art silver gelatin printing black and white photographs became a nascent passion.

"During my college years, photojournalism for newspapers in Virginia served as my creative outlet. Then, I wanted to become a National Geographic Photographer. Before medical school, I worked briefly for the DuPont Company where I had the opportunity to learn to print color images from some fantastic and competitive photographers. There, I learned the fine art of salon printing.

"As I went on to attend medical school at the University of Virginia and in the years after, when I was in surgical residency at Duke University, my opportunities to enjoy photography became limited but remained dormant. The renaissance occurred with a photo trek to Tibet in 1999. From that time forward, as I traveled the world speaking on robotic cardiac surgery, I began to take 'photo day' side trips. My love of this amazing art reemerged. It was then that I sought out George deWolfe, an internationally known fine art photographer, who taught me to print my work digitally.

"My wife, Tammy, and I immensely enjoyed our trips to Africa, where I captured the wonderful people and the wildlife through photography. For over 50 years, she was my inspiration for living, thinking, working, and loving."

www. photographybychitwood.com
Email: [email protected]