Photograph of Frances Landsberg

Here is a photo of my mother at age 26. I managed to do a bit of the background on photoshop but Dominique (my daughter) couldn't bear my slowness so she took over and completed the rest. The original photo is black and white so we went wild filling in all the other colours. I will try some more versions at another time.

My mother turns 90 in September.

Who owns this mansion?

Imagine who would live in such opulence. An American Billionaire? A Saudi Prince? Louis XIV of France? Scroll down for the answer;

The President of Zimbabwe

Robert Mugabe.

A Maniac, mass-murderer whose people are starving while he siphons millions into his own pockets and the world stands by and watches, including closet neighbour South Africa

Movie stars of the 1920s - Clara Bow and Loretta Young

1925 Lady in Hat

flapper photo

I think this is a lovely photo. I would like to set my book in this era - just before the second world war. I will search the web for a few more.

Paul Wright

Recently watched a T.V. programme - Star Potraits with Rolf Harris. One of the artists - Paul Wright - painted really well - very much like Lucien Freud. He can be viewed on http://www.modernartistsgallery.com/. They represent a number of artists - go to "artists" and they are listed alphabetically.

He has a very immediate, direct style - using impasto paint (which I love). There were two other artists on the show. One of them was only 20. She uses a computer grid, photographs the sitter and then transfers the image to a grided canvas. Her style was precise and detailed. The result is very good but the paint is applied to thinly for my liking. However what she did do which I liked was to use beading sewed to the canvas. Such a good idea. She uses words as part of the composition. So although very precise she is still quite creative.

The other artist did the potrait in watercolour. Also very well done.

botanical paintings

These are the 12 paintings I did for the student exhibition at NMIT.

justine

I am busy doing a potrait of justine, my niece. I am waiting for her to come by so I can fix her mouth as it is not quite right yet. I have bought some coloured papers from a scrapbooking shop which I am going to stick onto the clothing area to make a sort of mixed media painting.

Frieda Khalo still life

This is a painting I did some months ago before leaving Holland. I gave it to my sister, Annabel and she has it hanging in her bedroom in South Africa.