Seeing double

Last Sunday morning, Auckland artist Nancy Teale retrieved this painting from storage and hung it in her Albany apartment.

That evening, she did a double take when she opened the Herald on Sunday and saw the original photo taken by former Herald photographer Michael Tubberty in our Photo Recall column.

The painting was by a friend's late father, Dutch emigrant Jan Staal.

"It's not so much the quality of the painting, but the subject," she says. "It's got a real warmth."

Mr Staal's widow Mary Staal, in her late 70s, says her husband, a flight instructor, had flown B-25 bombers in World War II.

"He was always interested in art of any description. He had a big scrap book with all sorts of newspaper cuttings that attracted his attention. When he was in a painting mood, he'd paint them."