ARTIST USES HOUSE PAINT

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31276, 24 January 1967, Page 8

ARTIST USES HOUSE PAINT

Outside Walls Decorated “The Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, Jan. 23 Mr Sydney G. Attwell, of Henderson, is not like most landscape painters—besides being 84 years old he uses 1 ordinary house paint, and instead of a canvas he uses the walls of his small outdoor study.

Mr Attwell, the author of seven books on South Africa, where he spent the first half of his life, built his study three years ago and endured its depressingly blank fibrolite walls until early in 1966. Then in an attempt to give it some warmth he gave the walls two coats of white paint and set-to work on the landscape artned with six small cans of paint and the nostalgic memories of the land he left 45 years ago. He divided the walls into eight sections, and in six months turned the study into a ready-made art gallery. On the walls Mr Attwell painted several South African scenes, including a portion of the Transkei coast, the Drakensberg Range, the Natal coastline and the ostrich farm on the Karoo, where he was born. The vivid memories which have helped him reconstruct the landscapes were forged in 39 years of adventure-filled life in Africa. He emigrated to New Zedland in 1922 with his wife arid family, but Mr Attwell admits that his heart still lies in South Africa.