this ‘n that by Anne Vargas annevargas3@gmail.com
“Tales of a Timid Traveler” is the title of the book I am writing for our grandchildren, a collection of stories about our adventures and experiences during the 24 years we spent as guest passengers on cruise ships. Some of chapters will continue to appear in Senior Spectrum. Here is another:
We meet the most interesting people!!! Anne Vargas
W
e sailed on a “crossing’” from Florida to Barcelona. It was a fifteen-day cruise with only one stop, which translates to 14 days at sea. I was apprehensive about this; stormy seas could have made it miserable but we were blessed with tranquil waters the entire way. The 450 passengers were all seasoned travelers who choose repositioning cruises because they like the days at sea so it was a pleasant grouping of interesting people with plenty of time to get to know one another. No, we did not meet Koko the Gorilla, nor did we meet Queen Elizabeth but we did meet Richard Stone who introduced them to us. Richard is a British painter, specializing in portraits. He began cultivating his gift at the age of four and told his mother then that he wanted to paint a portrait of Queen Elizabeth. Although he had little formal art training, his success is a direct result of a natural talent and a strong determination to succeed. At the age of 22, he became the youngest commissioned royal portrait painter in almost 200 years.
He has now completed numerous portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, the latest of which has been made into a commemorative stamp, as well as the Queen Mother and virtually everyone else in the Royal Family. He also painted the official Downing Street portrait of Margaret Thatcher, The Lady in Blue. His portraits hang at Buckingham Palace, the National Portrait Gallery
(London), and the National Portrait Gallery (Australia). Richard was one of my husband’s fellow lecturers on this voyage. He is delightfully unassuming and we had ample opportunity to spend time with him and his wife, which made the cruise even more special for us. Through the course of his lectures we all learned a great deal about him and what it was like to paint those portraits. One of his most moving stories was about going to South Africa to paint Nelson Mandela and the challenge of capturing the essence of the man through his eyes. But the most fascinating story was this: Richard was asked a few years ago whether he would consider painting a portrait of Koko, a 35-year-old lowland gorilla. As a mature female, she weighs over 300 lbs and has the strength of six men. From the age of one she has been trained by Stanford University Scientist, Dr. Penny Patterson and her team, to ‘talk’ with the sign language used by the deaf, and to understand spoken English. Koko has a vocabulary of more than 1,000 signs and understands about 2,000 English words. The center is attempting to raise money to continue this important research and to move Koko to a larger and more suitable facility. All proceeds from the sale of the portrait will go entirely to this cause. When he was approached with this proposal, Richard was also told it wouldn’t work unless Koko liked him. He lives in England; Koko is in California. Plans were made for the meeting and Koko was told ahead of time that she would have a visitor and that he wanted to paint her portrait (picture). She was even given a book of photographs of Richard’s portraits. Richard’s account of their first meeting was wonderful; Koko decided immediately that she did like him and by the second visit insisted he come into her cage. With great trepidation he went in and described to us how he was feeling at that (This ‘n that page 32)
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March 2021 // www.SeniorSpectrumNewspapers.com
