Last weekend I visited eva Jellinek to show her the painting I did of her hands.
Eva was Gardener of the Year for 2009 and is a remarkable woman. She's turning 90 next year and developed her love of gardening during the war.
Eva was born in Czechoslovakia and as a child she dreamed of studying horticulture, but her reality changed dramatically when, in 1942, sixty members of her family were forced into Terezin Ghetto in Poland. Eva says, "It was a walled-in city and we grew vegetables for the Germans." When Eva's sister was to be moved from Terezin, Eva "volunteered stupidly" to go with her. They ended up in Auschwitz where her sister was "put straight away in the gas."

I went to Papua New Guinea over the weekend and met Stephanie Copus-Campbell. Harold Mitchell flew me over to paint her hands. He told me she was the most remarkable woman and he was absolutely right.

She works for AusAID and does the most amazing work.

She showed me the Disabled Orphanage. There were no facilities and it's completely run by volunteers. These poor kids are abandoned as the families can't cope and they have nowhere to stay.

We also went to the HIV ward at the hospital. The conditions were terrible and it was awful seeing the grief of the families of these people. Stephanie gave each of the patients an orange and made sure to speak to them all individually. She is such a compassionate person.

The maternity ward also had awful conditions, but at least the women there were there for a good reason and came out of it with something beautiful.

The people were very friendly and full of life and colour. It seemed hard to associate the violence that is prevalent there with the local people I met.
I wasn't able to leave the hotel and there were coils of barbed wire over all the fences.

It was a fantastic experience and I really hope I do the painting justice. I feel it's important to somehow show in the painting the work that Stephanie does.