Released on = August 8, 2007, 7:32 am

Press Release Author = Jimmy Lee Shreeve, author and journalist

Industry = Entertainment

Press Release Summary = A Los Angeles artist gave Elton John a painting he\'d done of
Princess Diana, helping the rock star deal with his sense of loss.

Press Release Body = Everywhere around the world - those few people who were
admitted to Sir Elton John\'s private dressing room saw her. Ted Oliver, writing in
Britain\'s Mirror newspaper (5/29/98) described her as \"wearing a deep v-necked black
dress and looking at her most beautiful and relaxed\".

A member of Elton\'s road crew was overheard saying: \"She goes with him everywhere. I
know he talks to her before he goes on stage.\"

What they were referring to was a life size portrait of Princess Diana, given to
Elton shortly after her death by Los Angeles-based artist Louis Briel
(www.louisbriel.com).

The painting is now featured in Diana In Art, by Mem Mehmet, a collection of
portraits of the Princess from around the world. It is published this month by Pop
Art Books.

In September 1997, just a month after her death, Louis Briel, painted the portrait
of the Princess to deal with the unexpected grief he was feeling. Days after
finishing the portrait, he saw Elton on the Oprah Winfrey Show. So touched was he by
Elton\'s love for Diana, he gave the painting to the rock star.

\"He needed it,\" says Briel who, for a commission like this, would normally charge up
to $14,000 USD.

\"Trying to put a value on a posthumous painting, done in the days following the
death of the subject, is like trying to put a value on a life - it can truly never
be recreated,\" says Briel.

Moved by the kind gesture, Elton sent a handwritten note to Briel thanking him and
saying the portrait was \"beautiful\". The star told him: \"I am going to take the
canvas on tour with me, so that I can look at it each night before I go on stage.
Then the portrait will be sent to my home in England.\" And he finished: \"You are a
very kind man and the gift is very much appreciated. Much love, Elton.\"

True to his word, Elton took the portrait around the world with him on \"The Big
Picture Tour\" in 1997-98. It hung in his dressing room at every venue worldwide and
brought him comfort in the aftermath of Diana\'s funeral, at which he performed a
revised version of his hit song \"Candle In The Wind\".

Staff reported that not only did Elton gaze at the portrait before going on stage
each night, he also used to look at the portrait intensely - as if he was seeking to
psychically communicate with it.

After the tour a member of Elton\'s team told Briel: \"The painting is like a genie.
It goes where he goes. We\'ve packed it up and unpacked it at every stop around the
world. I know he talks to her before he goes on stage.\"

Someone who was close to Elton\'s alcohol/drug recovery said: \"I\'m sure Diana is his
higher power. She tells him [via the portrait] what shoes to wear.\"

The painting is now part of the singer\'s personal collection but it means so much to
him that he has kept it almost under lock and key. He has never shown the painting
publicly, as to do so would break the spell.

In 2003, a visitor to Elton\'s Windsor home told reporters that his private chapel
was decorated with two enormous portraits: one of Diana (presumably Briel\'s) and the
other of fashion designer Gianni Versace.

But does Diana really inhabit the mysterious portrait? Can she truly be Elton\'s
spirit guide?

Briel is certain this is the case. During his more than thirty year career he has
made a speciality of posthumous portraits. He suspects the portrait had a healing
and restorative effect on Elton - that it soothed his grief and kept him company
during a difficult and painful time.

\"I\'ve seen it over and over again,\" Briel says. \"A posthumous painting is a spirit
healer. For those surviving it heals in a manner that old photos can\'t. The painting
functions in this world very much like an individual and takes on a kind of
personality - maybe because the painting is a brand new creation that includes the
perfected past and the truth of the present. The new portrait transcends death
precisely because it includes knowledge of it. The painting functions in this world
very much like an individual and takes on a kind of personality. The life-size
painting reoccupies the spiritual window the subject left.\"

So, Briel, says: \"I\'ll bet he still talks to her at Woodside, and I wouldn\'t be
surprised if she even talks back. Paintings are that way, you know.\"

But what was it about the portrait that moved moved Elton so much?

\"I believe my feelings of sadness and grief matched Elton\'s,\" says Briel. \"And yet
the painting is not sad - wistful and bittersweet maybe, but it is also soft and
kind, gentle and welcoming. It says, \'I\'m okay\'.\"

Many who grieved terribly after Diana\'s death are already taking comfort in the
painting, now that images of it are finally being seen publicly. Briel has received
emails from people around the world saying that the painting - with its peace and
tranquillity - symbolises closure in the troubled Diana story.

\"People are saying that my painting closes the door on all the conspiracy theories
and claims of Mohamed Al Fayed that have continued to surround Diana after her
death,\" says Briel. \"People feel that, at last, she can rest in peace.\"

But Briel reveals one wish: \"When I met him, Elton said he would one day give the
painting to the Princes William and Harry. I hope he will do so now. It would help
heal them and come to terms with their mother\'s tragic death. It helped heal Elton,
perhaps now it\'s time for him to give it to the Princes, who truly need it.\"

Further information
http://www.louisbriel.com/

Web Site = http://www.jimmyleeshreeve.com

Contact Details = JIMMY LEE SHREEVE
Author & journalist
\"Blood Rites\" (Arrow 2006), \"Doktor Snake\" (St Martin\'s Press 2004)
Independent, Daily Express, Telegraph Earth, Sunday Express, Best, Bizarre

17 Riseway Close, Norwich,
Norfolk, NR1 4NJ, England.

jimmy.shreeve@gmail.com
www.jimmyleeshreeve.com

Cell: 07980 330579
Tel: 01603 701937