Art and about

Chinwe Roy Artist to the Queen

Chinwe Roy of Nigerian parentage has taken up her new commission to paint Elizabeth II, Queen of England. Her background and ideas make fascinating reading.

Born in East Nigeria. Chinwe always knew she wanted to be an artist and took every opportunity to draw.

During, and shortly after the Biafran war there were precious few opportunities to study art in Nigeria, especially for women, so Chinwe arrived in Britain in 1975 and started a foundation course at East Ham College. She went on to do a degree in graphic design at Hornsey College of Art and later set up her own graphic design company with a friend, although always retaining her interest in fine art.

Chinwe took up full-time portrait painting in 1988; she has, since then, completed a number of important commissions, including the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku.

In addition to portrait work, Chinwe paints real life issues. Her 'African Diaspora' series of five paintings commissioned by the sports personality Kriss Akabusi, depicting the story of the African slave trade, have been extensively exhibited and shown on television, She captures the essence of her subjects in oil and pastel studies which have earned international recognition.

What is Chinwe's greatest source of inspiration? I am greatly inspired by people; but especially by the survival spirit and tenacity of the people of Africa. It is not surprising therefore that my portraiture has developed in the area of figurative historical paintings.

Why portrait painting?
The decision to concentrate on portrait painting initially came with the realisation that I was more interested in people than other subjects. It is a consuming challenge to capture people's character, their outlook, the effect the world has on them and their response to it.

This has gradually built up to involve me in the wider issues of cultures and countries in Africa, through slavery, colonisation, exploration and their effect throughout the world.

What feelings lie behind her paintings?
I try to portray the heat and the brightness of Africa and to create the mood that will convey the anguish and ecstasy through historical paintings such as 'The African Slave Trade' series, 'Ndu Ozo' and the exhibition 'Africa; Past, Present and Future' shown at the Royal Commonwealth Society 29th March to 23rd April 1999.

Armet Francis Photographer

Armet Francis is one of Britain's leading black photographers. He is dedicated to photographing black people in the African diaspora to show us their daily lives. His books, The Black Triangle: The People of the African Diaspora and The Children of the Black Triangle broke new ground and opened up previously closed avenues for black photographers in the UK. An artist in all senses of the word, he also paints and writes poetry, and is now planning a major retrospective of his work.

His recent work has been shown at the Royal Commonwealth Society in March.

Carnival Queen Where is she now?

In 1998, mother-of-two Norma Charles sought legal advice after being used as the star of Royal Mail's national campaign - without knowing anything about it.

Anyone know what happened?