KS2 Art and Design: Ade Adepitan looks at Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear by Vincent van Gogh

ADE ADEPITAN:

Hi, my name's Ade Adepitan. I'm a Paralympian, TV presenter and children's book author, and I'm visiting the newly renovated Courtauld Gallery and I'm going to look at a really special painting. You want to join me? Let's go and have a look.

So, as a Paralympian, looking is so important, especially in team sports, you know. I play wheelchair basketball and I need to be able to see what's happening all over the court and what's happening behind me, what's happening in front of me. Having all these images and pictures. The more pictures, the more you can see, the better athlete you are.

Wow. It's nice to be up close and personal with Van Gogh himself.

It's a really striking painting. As I came around the corner, my eyes were drawn to those green eyes. Wow – such an intense look. There could be a million things going through his head, but what's so good about this is, it feels like there's so much coming from it.

There's so much green in this painting. Even the colours that are not green feel like they're in the family of green.

Maybe he wants to be outside?

And then I'm really interested in the painting behind him. There's a woman holding a tray and a mountain in the background. Is that a door on the right-hand side? It's funny – why would you only have just a little bit of the door? I guess I'm so used to people taking pictures on their phone and you're cropping and you're trying to make everything perfect.

If that was today, you'd crop that door out, but who am I to tell Van Gogh? I mean, I can't be telling Van Gogh to crop things out of his own painting. He knows what he's doing.

I think he wants to go out. I think he's on his way out. He's dressed like he's leaving. Where's he going? He's got that coat on and the hat. He's so close to the door. Everything about this painting says to me that he wants to leave.

It's really important to look. We often look, but don't see and, you know, people can tell you so much without speaking.

Being in a wheelchair, I feel like often people don't see me. So I spend my time looking at people. I observe people.

It's funny because the thing that everyone talks about with Van Gogh is the fact that he cut off his ear and you can see the bandage, but that's not the thing that sticks out to me. I recognise that look. I've had that look before. It's defiant.

People have told me what I can and can't do, and I've decided I'm not having it. I'm gonna do what is right for me. I feel like I'm getting that from him. It's that defiancy combined with frustration.

You need to exercise that power that you have to look and to see, and coming to art galleries is the perfect place to practice that. To see beyond the picture, because there's so much here. I'll be back.