Royal touch made big impression

NEW OWNER: Former Wanganui woman Sally Ann McLachlan [left] and artist Mandii Pope, with Ms Pope's painting, Clarence House On Waitangi Day. PHOTOS/SUPPLIED

A Wanganui woman is the proud new owner of a painting that was partly painted by Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.

Clarence House On Waitangi Day by English-based New Zealand artist Mandii Pope and the Duchess is now hanging in Sally Ann McLachlan's London home.

The painting, on a 1.2-metre round board, shows an angled view of Clarence House - where the Duchess and husband Prince Charles live - with an English guard and a Maori warrior outside the front door.

Ms McLachlan told the Chronicle that she was drawn to the painting the first time she saw it, at a Waitangi Day gathering for the New Zealand Women's Association at New Zealand House in London.

"Camilla was our special guest of honour. She had expressed an interest to meet New Zealanders as she had much enjoyed her recent trip to New Zealand.

"Mandii was present at the reception, together with her nearly completed painting of Clarence House, and asked Camilla to add some finishing touches. She painted in a couple of ground floor windows and said they were her dining room windows."

Seven months later Ms McLachlan and the painting were again in the same room - this time at an auction in aid of the charity WW100, a fundraiser for New Zealand's World War I commemorations.

"I was particularly drawn to the painting because it was large and round and rather quirky and fun," she said.

After an "animated" auction, Ms McLachlan was successful and paid 1450 ($2921) for the painting.

"I am, in no way, an art expert - I just know what I like when I see it."

Ms McLachlan was brought up on a farm near Wanganui and attended Wanganui Girls' College. She left in 1977 to "see the world" and settled in London.