PAINTERS’ PERILS.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIII, 25 May 1922, Page 1

PAINTERS’ PERILS.

Some remarkable pictures, which were actually painted on the ocean floor, have just been purchased by the Prince of Monaco. Mr Zarah Pritchard is the artist, and as a boy he became such a good diver that he was able to remain under water for quite a. time. Thus his eyes were opened to the wonders of undersea scenery. He devised special painting apparatus which has enabled him, in full I diver’s rig, to set up his easel at depths varying from 16ft to .'Oft, and , ; paint under-ocean, “landscapes.’ He uses thick oil colors which do not run in contact with water. Mr Pritchard has painted in the coral lagoons of the South Seas, where there is neither tide nor current to disturb the process. In fact, when he has been painting about half an hour, and the pressure of the water lias fatigued him and the cold benumbed him, he can leave his tackle where it is, rise to the surface, and retuin the iiul day. </<.-. find everything intact. A French artist, who was the nephew of the owner of the observatory at the summit of Mount Blanc, painted a portrait of a lady in that exalted situation. The artist and hie sitter were wrapped in thick furs, and the artist had to paint in thick woollen gloves. Sometimes the sittings were interrupted bv terrific gales, accompanied by blinding snow. Some remarkable pictures were ex-

hibited in London a few years go. Painted by one of the members of an Antarctic expedition, they depicted 111 glowing colors the wonders of the aurora borealis, the prismatic colors of j giant icebergs, and the tumbled confusion of ice-floes. Often the artist painted whilst perched on a berg rocked by the long wash of the Arctic seas. A litt-te boy wanted to give his mother a birthday present, but did not know what to give her. At last he decided imon a Bibi®. After he had 1 bought it he was stumped again, as ' he could not think what to inscribe.

on the front page. After a good 1 deal of thought he resolved on the following, which he had seen in several books:—“To dear mother, with the atithor’s compliments./ —