SOUTHSEA ARTIST BRINGS THE PAST TO LIFE TROUGH HER PAINTINGS

SOUTHSEA ARTIST BRINGS THE PAST TO LIFE THROUGH HER PAINTINGS

Kate Thompson

Casting around for inspiration one day, Fizle Sagar hit upon the perfect way to bring the past to life. Initially an exercise to keep her artistic muscles flexed, her talent for taking tiny black and white photos and bringing the subjects to life with a muted palette has brought commissions to her door. “I started painting quite late as I was in my fifties. I enjoyed taking classes and attending courses — and I soon realised that I enjoyed painting people’s faces and capturing the essence of the person. “It’s not always possible to be able to draw from life, so that’s when I started looking at old black and white photos.

“Some of them are tiny only an inch by an inch and a half, but if you look closely you can still bring that person to life.

“The people in the photos are now in their fifties or sixties so it can be quite emotional to capture them as kids on the canvas,” she said. Her initial success sparked an obsession and Fizle found painting her own mother particularly cathartic. “I became almost addicted to bringing the people in the photos to life in a way that they had never been seen before. “It was like reaching back in time and finding these people who are your ancestors and making them real to you as opposed to black and white snapshots. “It really brought it home to me when I painted my mum. I had always known her as a woman

afflicted by rheumatoid arthritis, so it really affected me to see this young woman with healthy limbs,” she said. When Fizle receives a commission, she first scans the precious family photo and creates a larger print to work from.

“Even when you enlarge the image, you really have to study it to decide sometimes if the person is smiling or frowning. “I never use garish colours, I am aiming for a slightly faded look,” she said. For many years, Fizle’s talent went unrecognised. School left her feeling she was no good at art, but she always retained a love of sketching. “It was reading a book called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron that really persuaded me to give art another go. The book is for artists who are blocked and gives them a series of things to read and practice. “After working my way through it, I was encouraged to take up life drawing classes and life painting tuition as well as joining the Prince’s Drawing School in Shoreditch,” she explained. Painting the Past has become a passion for Fizle, and she admitted that hearing about the reactions to her work has brought her great joy. “You have no idea how people are going to react to the finished painting — I’m told that people often feel quite overwhelmed when they see them. “All I can do is give my attention and care to the painting - and hope that is appreciated,” she said.

Fizle Sagar can be contacted by emailing: fizle1474@gmail.com

MEET THE LOCAL COMPANY SUPERCHARGING PORTSMOUTH’S BROADBAND

Lockdown has meant spending more time at home than ever before, and our broadband is feeling the strain. With the internet essential for work, school, and fun, Portsmouth’s broadband just isn’t good enough anymore. You have probably seen green barriers popping up all over Portsmouth and engineers working in the streets. That’s because we’re getting a brand new fibre broadband network. It eliminates any copper elements, and instead means full fibre all the way to your door. The end of buffering!

SO WHY DO WE NEED A NEW NETWORK?

Full fibre is more reliable and much faster than what was generally available in the city from providers like BT, Openreach, Sky, or Virgin. These only used fibre to connect back from the street cabinets to an exchange and the wider internet, relying on copper for your home connection, which is what creates a lot of the speed and reliability problems.

THE NEW FULL FIBRE WILL SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS FOR DECADES TO COME.

CityFibre are building the new network, and local Internet Service Provider Giganet have been connecting the very first homes since February. Although Giganet have been providing internet to local businesses for years, this is the first time they’ve been able to connect homes here. Many of the Giganet team live in the city. Some have already been connected to the new fibre, others are waiting for the fibre to reach their streets — CityFibre’s build will continue for the next 3 years, and when complete, most local homes will be able to benefit. Welcome news for those who are fed up with low speeds, buffering and dropouts on Zoom calls.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR MY HOME?

Giganet’s top package of 900Mb/s is so much faster than what many locally had before. Marketing Manager Ruth did a speed test on her old broadband and compared it to one on her new Giganet connection the same day. The result was 13 times faster download and 92 times faster upload speeds! This local company are doing things differently. Instead of focusing on tying people into long contracts and sneaky price rises, Giganet sign you up for 12 months only, and promise not to raise the price during your contract or automatically after it ends. In fact, they’re so confident you’ll want to stay, you can carry on after your contract with no commitment. Giganet bring the opportunity to shop local for broadband, and benefit from the latest technology for years to come. If you’d like to learn more about full fibre and check whether it has reached your street yet, Giganet’s website is full of information. Check out home.giga.net.uk/portsmouth/ or follow @giganetuk for more details.

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THE GOODS YARD

Reclamation Yard open from 12th April

Floorboards, reclaimed doors, radiators bought & sold A comprehensive paint stripping & powder coating service - free estimates

Parking at Johnstone's Decorating Centre GOLDSMITH AVENUE, FRATTON, PORTSMOUTH P04 OBT TEL: 023 9281 8703 - 07503146108

Herbies Health Store provides wholefoods, vitamins, supplements and plant-based alternatives to the Southsea community and beyond. We stock a wide variety of products with an emphasis on healthy living, including an extensive organic & gluten free selection. We source locally where we can, with an environmental and sustainable ethos in mind. Customers are welcome to refill their domestic cleaning and personal care products. Jim and the team are on hand for any queries you may have and work hard to ensure specific items are ordered for customers. They can also deliver to the Portsmouth area and are open six days a week, including until late on a Thursday. Herbies Health Store 241 Albert Road, Southsea PO4 0JR tel: 02392 753458 email: jim@herbieshealthstore.co.uk herbieshealthstore @herbieshealth

A BRAND NEW LOOK FOR CHINNECK SHAW

One of Portsmouth’s longest established businesses will be coming out of the lockdown with a totally new look. Chinneck Shaw, the independent estate agency based at the centre of our island city, was established in 1883 and over its history has built a reputation for high quality service in the sales and lettings market. The re-brand seeks to capture the essence of living in a waterfront city and Portsmouth’s nautical heritage has been the inspiration for the energetic new design. Director Neil Shaw explained: “We have been looking at how we present our company for some time and like everyone else, our view of living in Portsmouth was affected by the lockdown. “We were influenced by the clear blue seas that were captured in images of Southsea during the first lockdown, and the importance of being able to walk by the shore. “Websites have taken on an even greater significance during the pandemic as they quite literally became the shopfront for countless businesses. That was true for ourselves, and we wanted to be able to showcase the technology we have been using during the lockdowns to market properties.” The new look website goes live in April and will include 360 degree tours of properties and the full marketing experience for both properties for sale and to let. “Even when the restrictions are eased, websites will continue to be the first means by which people will look at properties, so we needed to make our site the first port of call for home-hunters in Portsmouth,” said Neil.

Eagle eyed naval enthusiasts are sure to spot the use of nautical flags to convey messaging as part of the re-brand (even the

Neil Shaw

logo combines the flags used to convey C and S). In the coming months, the team will be using their artwork to reveal hidden messages as part of a fun social media campaign. “It all comes down to communication, and the flags were an important way for the Royal Navy to send messages. “There’s nothing twee about our new design — we have abstracted the flags and plan to use them in a fun way,” added Neil Chinneck Shaw is also rising to the green challenge by addressing their carbon footprint. “We believe we are the first estate agency in the region to nail our environmental colours to the mast. “It can be a bit overwhelming for businesses to know quite where to start, so we are taking the first steps to offset our carbon footprint with a number of initiatives,” said Neil. Chinneck Shaw is working with Carbon Footprint Ltd to analyse its carbon footprint, with the aim of offsetting and reducing the impact the business has on the environment. Neil explained his team had been particularly impressed by the work of The Package Free Larder in Elm Grove, Southsea’s first package free shop. “We’ve really admired the messaging from The Package Free Larder team. They recently said you don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly, you need millions of people doing it imperfectly. “We couldn’t agree more,” said Neil. The Chinneck Shaw team has gotten behind the green initiative and come up with a whole range of ideas, including removing single use plastics and making sure any printed items are fully recyclable. “We will be looking at everything, from the products we use to keep our office clean, to planting bee bombs (wild flower seed pods) in our office garden to promote pollination.

“We will also be looking into running electric vehicles, and we would love to plant a tree in our home city,” he added.