On the 19th of November 2009 Archbishop Tutu signed his portrait at his offices in Milnerton.  We had a good laugh when he started dancing and waving the paintbrush around, exclaiming:  “I’m Picasso”. He was very impressed with the portrait and really liked it and kept on touching it saying it is extraordinary. He then turned to us and said that we should get someone to buy the painting and then they should give the painting to him!  He thanked me, saying “Thank you for giving such a wonderful gift to our people and I pray that the painting will be a blessing to all who see it”. He then continued to pray.
I asked him to title the portrait and he decided to call it “Before the Eucharist”.
It was a great honour to paint the portrait of Archbishop Tutu and I will always remember this as one of the most exciting journeys in my life. I did not want to paint a formal portrait of him, but rather a painting that would tell a story about him. To do this I needed surroundings that would offer me the opportunity to create an atmosphere and to bring out his personality. The reconciliation area in St Georges Cathedral in Cape Town was the perfect place.
Meeting the Arch was a wonderful experience. His warm personality, his caring feelings for fellow human beings and his humour were a delight to take in.
When I started the painting it was like having a feast; I would pick up my brushes, prepare my palette and start working. I struggled to put my brushes down, but had to, especially sometimes when I realized it was 2:00 in the morning. I worked for two months, day and night  on the portrait. (Fortunately my husband, Peter is a very good cook).
When viewing the painting, I hope that every viewer will be moved and feel the same feelings that I felt when I painted the Arch.There are not enough words to express how I felt when I painted the Arch. The painting will be my voice.
The portrait of Archbishop Tutu will be on exhibition at the Longbeach Gallery and Framery at the Longbeach mall in Noordhoek from the 20th of November until the 7th of December.

In April this year (2008) I joined the Portrait Society of America for a third time to celebrate their tenth anniversary. The conference was held in Philadelphia. Again it was a great experience. I met many wonderful artists and made new friends. As always, there was an endless sharing of information.
The conference started on Thursday evening with three artists, Jamie McMahan, Dawn Whitelaw, Wendy Caporale doing simultaneous demonstrations. They were great and the rooms were packed with artists admiring every brushstroke that they made.
On the Friday John Howard Sanden shared his Premier Coup Portrait Technique with us. You could hear a pin drop, everyone was rivetted.
In the afternoon the artists took their portfolios for critiques. I asked Judith Carducci to critique my portfolio. She was very inspiring.
The first afternoon class I joined was one by Michael Shane Neal called "You be the Judge: creating a Portrait Commission from start to finish". Michael generously shared his knowledge and paintings with us during this class. The next class I joined was "The Classic Teqnique of Trois Crayon" by Robert Liberace. It was an amazing experience to see this artist draw with red conte and charcoal. In the evening Michael Shane Neal gave a fascinating lecture on John Singer Sargent's style and technique.
On Saturday morning Everett Raymond Kinstler shared with us his stories about masters of the past and how they influenced his work. Again he emphasized how important it is to work from life and from your heart.
This was followed by a demonstration by Burt Silverman. We were all mesmerised.
In the afternoon Aaron Shikler shared his personal stories with us and what inspired him to start painting. At times he had the audience shrieking with laughter.
This was followed by a demonstration done by David Leffel. He demonstrated how to paint the eye. His demo of a detailed eye was very impressive.
After David Leffel's demo, I went to look at the top 20 works of the International Portrait Competition. The work was of a very high standard and a feast for the eye.
Saturday evening was the Banquet and Awards Presentation.
On Sunday morning Daniel Greene gave us a slide presentation of his work. Nelson Shanks ended the morning by sharing his stories with us when he painted Lady Diana, The Pope and Pavarotti. Mr Shanks is also the founder of Studio Incamminati. He shared with us his philosophy of painting.
We then went to visit the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where the Cecilia Beaux exibition was held. The Philadelphia Museum, the work of Frida Kahlo was on exhibition here. Our visit ended at Studio Incamminati. Here they welcomed all the Portrait Society members with drinks and snacks. I was very impressed with the work that the students were doing at Studio
Incamminati.
At this stage my brain wanted to burst with information, but I felt deeply satisfied and I had a whole lot of new ideas for my studio. Peter (my husband) did not realize how much work was
lying ahead for him.
I arrived back home very tired, but feeling very inspired and very happy that I took the long journey all the way to the USA.

In April 2002 I attended the annual conference of the Portrait Society of America which was held in Philadelphia (USA).
This year 2006, I was awarded a conference tuition scholarship by the Portrait Society of America. I was delighted and felt deeply honored and grateful to receive this scholarship from the society. This made it possible for me to join our family of Portrait Artists in Dallas, Texas on the 4th of May 2006. Before I take you with me on my journey to Dallas, I want to look back and share some of my experiences with you when I was in Philadelphia in 2002.

Exhausted after a 23 hour flight, I finally arrived at the hotel in Philadelphia. It was buzzing with artists from all over the world; there was so much excitement in the air. The demonstration done by Burton Silverman was outstanding. It made me realize that I still have a lot of hard work and a long road ahead of me. The slide show and lecture on “Painting Everything” by Richard Schmid was amazing. Mr Schmid is one of America's greatest artists; one for whom I have great admiration. I had the privilege of meeting him and his wife, well known artist Nancy Guzik. There was also a slide presentation by Daniel Greene; “Forty-nine Years of Painting”. It was wonderful to hear this artist's life story. He gave me so much hope and inspiration. A very precious event and one which will remain in my memory forever, was when Everett Raymond Kinstler (one of the most admired artists of our time) did a portrait demonstration of his longtime friend and fellow master painter, William F. Draper, the dean of portrait painting. Throughout this painting demonstration Mr Draper entertained us with hilarious stories while Mr Kinstler continued to paint a brilliant portrait. It was clear that these two artists were sharing a deep friendship. The interaction between them was so affectionate, so special. I have deep respect and great admiration for both these artists. This was followed by a slide presentation by Mr Draper: “How I see it”. His main message of “If in doubt, take it out” had the room roaring with laughter. The Portrait Society reproduced the portrait of Mr Draper into a Giclee print. Mr Kinstler and Mr Draper hand-signed each print. I was fortunate to acquire two of these prints.
I felt deep sadness when I read in the Portrait Society's Newsletter that Mr Draper passed away on October 26, 2003.
We ended the conference by visiting the Brandywine River Museum. Here we saw three generations of the Wyeth family paintings. I also went to visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art where I saw the wonderful works of the great masters of the past.
Overall the conference was a wonderful experience.

When I realized that I was going to join the 8th annual Art of the Portrait conference in Dallas, Texas I was overcome by excitement.
Exhausted and sick with a chest infection, I arrived in Dallas. Fortunately my husband, Peter, had packed in some antibiotics.
On the opening night there were over 700 artists from all over the world. I greeted Christine Egnoski (Executive Director) and I also had the privilege to meet Edward Jonas (well known sculptor and Vice Chairman of the Portrait Society) and thanked them again for giving me the opportunity to join them again. All the Art Manufacturers exhibited their art materials, books and DVD's. Artists were chatting, sharing ideas and making new friends. We also had the opportunity to observe four well known artists, each doing a portrait demonstration. It was the drawing done by Robert Liberace that captured my attention the most.
The highlight of the conference for me was called “A Joint Tripartite”. This was divided into three sessions. In the first session Raymond Kinstler painted Daniel Greene. Mr Kinstler shared wonderful humorous stories with us about fellow artist and friends. I loved the story he told us about the musician who played a brilliant piece of music and everybody in the audience loved it and thought it was superb. But the musician was not happy and he wanted to play it again, because he could not hear something. Mr Kinstler explained how we could relate this to our art. He also told us how he was given Sargent's palette and how we should follow Sargent's example and paint with a limited palette and rather concentrate on values rather than colours. He also encouraged us not only to paint portraits but also to paint landscapes, still-life and everything else that inspires us. “Don't be a portrait painter, be an artist”. He emphasized that passion and hard work are the keys, even when we don't feel like working, then discipline is the answer. He then continued to paint Daniel Greene and at the same time he entertained us with fascinating stories.
In the second session Daniel Greene painted Burton Silverman. He emphasized how important solid draftsmanship is to a good portrait. He would draw and redraw and restate the darks. He massed in all the lights and shadows before adding any colour to the portrait. He also advised us to rather darken the darks first before lightening the lights. He is a brilliant teacher and artists. He continued to paint an impressive portrait. To repeat what Mr Silverman had to say, “It is like seeing yourself being born again”.
In the third session Burton Silverman painted Everett Raymond Kinstler. Again we were entertained with their hilarious stories while a brilliant portrait evolved.
On the Friday afternoon I joined the drawing class with Robert Barrett. He is a brilliant draftsman and he showed us how he uses nu-pastels when he does a drawing. He spent the rest of the time guiding and giving us advice while we were drawing a model.
I also found the panel discussion on how to overcome challenges fascinating. Jason Bouldin explained how he uses photography as a tool to help him with his portraiture. Edward Jonas explained to us how he was commissioned to do a portrait of someone who had passed away many years ago. He could not make out the facial features on the photographs that he was given, so he went to great lengths to study the underlying structure of the head and then made a sculpture of the person first, before continuing to paint the portrait. Wow, this was fascinating and so inspiring. Michael Shane Neal emphasized how important it is for us to draw and paint from life and Dawn Whitelaw shared paintings with us of artist who have inspired her and pointed out why she found them so inspiring.
I found the presentation by David Leffel and Sherrie McGraw fascinating. He advised us to have a concept of how we want the painting to look like, before starting the painting process. He also explained how light creates movement across the canvas and how important it is to logically understand the laws of light. He then continued to entertain us with a hilarious story how he ended up posing as a female model in one of his paintings.
John Howard Sanden captured our attention when he pointed out the ten most common mistakes made in portrait painting. They were; poor drawing, overworked details, distracting background, poor relationship of figure to the space, insensitivity to edges, under modelled form, not realistic, in classical portraiture it is inappropriate to paint a smile, multiple light sources and too many highlights. He compared paintings and explained each of these mistakes to us. I found his presentation very informative and helpful.
I displayed my portfolio at the conference. I also had the privilege to meet Michael Shane Neal. He gave me a critique on my portfolio. He shared ideas and exercises that I would find helpful. He gave me so much hope and inspiration.
We were informed on how to prepare a portfolio, how to handle commissions, set up contracts, marketing our art and how to present ourselves as professional portrait artists. Wow, my head was throbbing with information. I went to view the exhibition of finalists' paintings who were selected from the Portrait Society's International Portrait Competition. The quality of the work was excellent.
I managed to get my books signed and then I thought of my treasure that I would like to take home with me. I purchased a Turtle Wood Palette and feeling rather nervous, I approached the great portrait masters of our time, who were present at the conference, to sign the back of my palette. Without hesitation these brilliant, humble artists who share their knowledge so willingly signed the back of my palette. Mr Kinstler still took time to explain to me how I should seal the back of my palette. My deepest thanks to Mr Kinstler, Mr Greene, Mr Silverman, Mr Leffel and Mr Sanden.
I also made some wonderful friends and we spent a most enjoyable evening together at the Saturday night Banquet. The food was delicious and the dessert was almost too stunning to eat.
We ended the conference by visiting the Dallas Museum of Art, Kimbell Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum and the Modern Museum of Art.
I am deeply grateful that I was given the opportunity to learn from the great artists of the past and from today's finest and most respected artists. They have helped me find a voice, they have shown me the road and I am enjoying the journey.
I would like to end off with a excerpt from Harley Brown's essay:
“As I stand back and look at it, I know that there are areas that need repair. But I must defy that urge and put the portrait aside; knowing that it's finished, is as much part of technique as the actual painting itself. Too much fussing at the end begins to erase some of the artist's originality. As individuals, we don't see the world alike, so we shouldn't portray it in a similar fashion. What we each have is of unique importance; in the end, the marks we leave on canvas or paper reveal ourselves as much as our subjects. In a way, it is all of life's experiences filtered and funnelled into the defining moment.”

It is not possible for me to share everything with you on a conference of this calibre in just a few pages. If you are interested to read more about this event, there is an article published in the August/September 2006 International Artist Magazine called “Deep in the heart of Texas”.