RUI PAES, a Portuguese artist who has illustrated Madonna’s fifth and latest children’s book, Lotsa de Casha, will be with the pop diva herself at the book’s launching ceremony in New York on June 8.
This will be the first meeting of illustrator and writer. Paes has so far only spoken to Madonna “a couple of times” on the telephone. The book, to be published in Portugal under the title Pipas de Massa, tells of a rich but unhappy old man who discovers the joy of sharing.
Rui Paes (48), who has lived in London since 1986, was chosen by Madonna after she saw a New York Times Magazine article about a room in a castle in Norway that had been painted by the artist.
Paes, a devotee of the Baroque period and an advocate of time-honoured painting techniques, is a master of the trompe-l’oeil and has executed vast murals in private mansions in Egypt, Germany, England, Lebanon, Norway and Italy. Although Paes’ works feature in several important private European collections, he is virtually unknown inside Portugal. However, his association with the “Material Girl” and the launch of the book in Portugal on June 1 (a week ahead of the New York launch) looks set to change all that.
