A Helford based artist has become the only English oil-painter among a 125-strong global team behind the world's first fully painted feature length film, Loving Vincent.

Sarah Wimperis became immersed in the themes, style and world of Vincent van Gogh while working on Loving Vincent, a film which brings the paintings and subjects of the artist together to tell the story of the last few days of his passionate and ill-fated life - up to his mysterious death in July 1890.

On Monday, November 20, The Poly, in association with Beside the Wave gallery, will host a special Cornish premiere for Loving Vincent, with a meet the artist session beforehand at the Arwenack Street gallery where Sarah is showing work from her summer in France, painting “in the footsteps” of Van Gogh.

She will then be on stage at The Poly after the screening, to answer audience questions.

Sarah said: "Such an intense experience is bound to affect your work, and I think we all felt Vincent was inside our heads. Certainly I’m finding it very easy to devote long hours to painting and I know my brushwork and colour skills improved. I also believe that his dogged pursuit of his own artistic voice, in the face of all opposition, has helped me to believe in myself as an artist."

Every one of the 65,000 frames of the film is an oil-painting, hand-painted by professional artists working in Poland and Greece, and Sarah spent five months working twelve hour days in the Gdansk studios to produce 350 oil paintings, making up about 30 seconds of the final film.

Sarah’s latest paintings embrace the open air, light and heat of rural France which inspired much of Van Gogh’s own work.

She said: "I am not interested in the classic tourist spots so much as in the mundane, everyday and small things that make a sense of a place.

"To paint in extreme heat is challenging and exciting, the air seems to have a different colour. I also find the constant barrage of new sights and smells very inspiring."

Beside the Wave director Ingrid Heseltine said: “Sarah has been reassembling her private relationship with France after channelling Vincent van Gogh for so long,”

“She’s spent the summer seeing afresh the landscapes that are familiar to her, but through the expressive lens of Van Gogh’s paintings - the way in which he represented the characters and the landscape around him. The work she has produced is, in our view, some of her best yet."

The Loving Vincent evening starts at 5.30pm at Beside the Wave on Monday, November 20, the film begins at 7.30pm at The Poly, and

Sarah will also be taking questions following The Poly’s second screening on Tuesday, November 21, at 7.30pm.

Tickets cost £10 for an adult and £8 for concessions from 01326 319461 or thepoly.org