My Account
Artist Amanda Moore of Manly recently painted a portrait of her father, four years after his death, as a memorial.
She has the portrait on her phone as a screensaver, which she says is “so that she can see his smiling eyes, kindness and patience each day”.
Amanda’s father, Michael Carter (Mike) lived in the UK, but visited the Hibiscus Coast for several months at a stretch.
Mike, who died suddenly in 2019, was a loving father, whose work making artistic tops for Revlon’s perfumes and lipsticks often took him away from home.
“His job was to make cosmetic packaging look glorious,” Amanda says.
He loved art and bought an etching from Amanda’s first exhibition.
“My father was always very encouraging,” Amanda says. “He told me to ‘do what you love’, and that’s absolutely what I’ve been able to do.”
Many years ago, as a gift for her father, she painted a picture of his dad, her grandfather, Noel Carter. Noel was a World War I veteran who was injured in the conflict and returned to the UK to convalesce, where he met his future wife.
Amanda says in the latter part of his life, her father faced grief, loneliness and poor health, but did so “with a beautiful vulnerability, kindness and patience”.
Another of Amanda’s paintings of her family members – a portrait of her son – featured in Hibiscus Matters May 4 issue last year.
