The Painting
Prince
For the Diamond Jubilee (1952-2012) of the Queen Elizabeth ,
her son Prince Charles and his wife Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall visited
Canada .On the second day, May 22nd 2012, when they came to
Toronto , one of the stops was in The Distillery Historic District where
I have my studio/gallery.
Gold teaspoon in mouth at birth -no we don’t share that-,
but we have some things in common, like
for example: the fact that we were both married in the early 80’s ,we both have a son as a first born in 1982 ( Will is
older than my Alex by six months) and we both …. love watercolour
painting!!
Yes , Prince Charles is the honorary patron of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour (CSPWC) ,where I am an elected
member , and there are some 60 Canadian
watercolour paintings in his castle.
This past Tuesday I
met him and his wife, and I was pleasantly surprized by their accessibility and
joviality with us “commoners”. It was a beautiful spring day , with flowers in bloom and other royal
decorations, to celebrate the visit ,
but clearly ,they both were the rightful
“stars”.
Many Torontonians
came to greet them, and with them ,my friend, Jo Baumann, an artist from
Willowdale Group of Artists (WGA) and
her daughter Camilla ( Jo has another daughter, her
name is Catherine) . In a bold move, when Prince Charles passed close to us, Jo
flew toward him ,and shook his
hand. He was very gracious ,asked her if she was working in the distillery and I
took a picture of them. Her daughter taped the conversation with her phone . All happened in a few seconds. It was
unexpected , but he acted very natural, and wasn’t scared by us. We were probably looking very benign, with our pearls and
soft attire. The security people ,surrounding him ,were also unfazed by Jo’s courage.
She was happy, she followed his visit in Toronto and knew the details of his
hourly trip in the city.
I am still in owe by the royals modest presence. She looked like a real woman, showed her age(no
facial surgical interventions ,
extra-tanning…) , and was much prettier
than the media tries to portray her .The meeting with the royal couple was a great
memory , worth to be cherished for years to come.
And, of course , iI was very nice to meet
my fellow watercolour painter,
from UK , Prince Charles !!!
