Painting Story

Did you notice the painting on the wall in yesterdays' blip? No, not the 'Contemporary' wall colour, the flowers in the blue vase.

Story is that when I went to work in Riyadh in 1981, for Lockheed Aircraft Corp. I was on a large compound of bungalows a couple of miles outside the city. the area is now built up and the compound would have been opposite where the King Faisal Eye Hospital is now.
Marlane and Daniel, who was then 4 and is 40 this year, came out to stay for a month which was a scheme Lockheed had for men on 'batchelor' contracts (which was the reason I left Lockheed after my 2 year contract, the company running the MoFA contract gave me an accompanied contract).
While wandering around Riyadh we found a bunch of Korean artists that could paint pretty much anything and Marlane spotted a painting similar to the one above. She asked if they could do it in blue with white flowers and they said yes.
Off they went back to the UK and before my next vacation I saw the Koreans again to pick up the painting, the day before I flew. It was Brown, maybe 'Blue' is Korean for Brown!
They said not to worry, they could change it ready before I flew the next day and I could pick it up in the morning, which I did. 
It meant the oil paint was not dry so they wrapped it in black bin liners and I hand carried it onto the Saudia L1011 flight and off when we got to Heathrow.
There is a small smudge where it got knocked during the journey but I think it adds to the authenticity of the painting with it being done in oils.

How did they do it for me so quickly when I discovered it was the wrong colour? They simply painted over the brown with blue oils, you may notice some brown showing through particularly at the top. I guess that is where the sun was shining on the all behind the vase! They got away with it anyway and I've always like the painting. Ironically Marlane is not too keen on it!

On another occassion I hand carried a carpet back which we used for many years but is now rolled up in the attic as it doesn't really go with our decor now.