FORBES FRANCE · 2025
WILLEM VOS IN FORBES FRANCE.
In May 2025, Forbes France published a feature about Willem Vos and the personal transformation behind his painting practice.
The story follows an inner fire that was present long before painting became the centre of his life. It explores instinct, vulnerability and the need to turn lived experience into something visible.
Published 12 May 2025
THE STORY BEHIND THE FEATURE
AN INNER FIRE THAT REFUSED TO DISAPPEAR.
The Forbes France feature traces Willem Vos’s journey from a life shaped by responsibility and structure to a painting practice guided increasingly by instinct.
Drawing had been part of his life from an early age, but painting initially remained at its edges. Responsibilities took priority and emotions were more often contained than expressed. The need to create, however, never completely disappeared.
Following a period of personal change, painting became essential. It was no longer something to fit around the rest of life, but a way to give form to experiences that could not always be explained in words.
The article connects that personal shift with Willem’s physical approach to painting. He works through movement, layers, friction and experimentation. Acrylic paint, oil, charcoal and pigment are applied, removed and worked over until the image begins to carry the emotional weight behind it.
Rather than presenting transformation as a finished destination, the story shows it as an ongoing process. That tension between what has been lived, what is released and what remains visible continues to shape Willem Vos’s work today.
FROM STRUCTURE TO INSTINCT.
For years, painting existed alongside a life built around responsibilities and expected roles. Eventually, it became impossible to keep it there.
Choosing painting meant accepting uncertainty, but also recognising something that had been waiting for years: the need to create without first asking where it would lead.