A painting traveller shows the stations of her life

By Heidi Trautmann

Being a traveller myself for all my life I feel sympathetic for people who use their time abroad to meet people, to talk to them and eventually do their portraits in writing or in painting. Such a traveller is Françoise Moncomble. From her biography I learnt that she was a civil servant at the French Ministry of Finances in Paris and Attachée at the Ministry of Foreign Affaires and has served from there at French Embassies in London(England), Teheran(Iran), Muscat (Oman), Athens(Greece), Caracas (Venezuela), Rabat (Morocco), Washington(U.S.A.), Manama (Bahrain), Almaty (Kazakhistan) Tbilissi (Georgia).

That is quite a rainbow of different cultures. It is not done to look at the antiquities mentioned in travel books but to go out yourself and find the soul of a country, that is their people. Françoise has recorded the experiences and encounters she has made in painting their portraits, she looked for their patterns of life, not only in their daily routine but literally, the pattern of their dresses, the pattern of the work they do, a carpet, their habitat and the tools they work with. She must have spent hours with them to find out about it. You can see that Françoise Momcomble loved what she was doing, she has an eye for the details which are necessary to establish the correct portrait of a person.

Françoise Moncomble is retired and now lives in the South of Cyprus. Her work is appreciated by many, and so it is by our friend Altan Houssein, who persuaded her to exhibit in Bellapais and he made the necessary arrangements.

I went to Bellapais before the official opening to have a good look at the pictures as a big crowd was to be expected. Mr. Serdar Dentaş did the ‘cutting of the ribbons’ to open the exhibition to the many guests that had come.

The exhibition will be open until Sunday, 20 April. Françoise Moncomble has a website

www.Françoiseart.com if you have missed it to learn more about her.