Chosen by Julie Verhoeven - "Stanley Spencer’s work made an impression on me from an early age. I got a mixed feeling of attraction and repulsion to it. I was bought up a non-believer yet am strangely drawn to his otherworldly, highly charged scenarios; his unsettling compositions. I have an aversion to religion but I love a Spencer crucufix! During my teenage years we lived next to a graveyard and ever since the fear of death has been a constant underlying horror for me. I also remember a documentary on Spencer that I watched which only added to the mystique. He had such a distinct persona and almost comic appearance, not dissimilar to his work. This painting is like a magnet. In it I see coffins in place of those boats. Distress and drama with melancholic after-impressions. Looking at it leaves a distinct aftertaste that cannot be forgotten."

Julie Verhoeven is an artist.