Viral Dutch Artist Paints 10 Pictures at Once

Double Dutch: Rajacenna's skills have wowed many © JOHN THYS / AFP
Double Dutch: Rajacenna's skills have wowed many © JOHN THYS / AFP
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Viral Dutch Artist Paints 10 Pictures at Once

Double Dutch: Rajacenna's skills have wowed many © JOHN THYS / AFP
Double Dutch: Rajacenna's skills have wowed many © JOHN THYS / AFP

An astronaut, a self-portrait, a bespectacled panda and seven other pictures burst into life from her brush, painted on 10 canvasses laid out on a table, upside-down on the floor, and two easels.

It started as a party trick for the curly-haired Rajacenna -- her artist name -- who wanted a challenge to relieve her boredom.

But it has since become a profession that has shot her to viral fame, with every paint stroke worked out in advance in her head before setting to work with hands -- and feet.

"I work a bit on one canvas, then move to another one, so I'm always dividing my attention between them," said Rajacenna, who is technically left-handed.

"Five years ago, I started painting with both hands, as a bit of a challenge and to go quicker. I discovered I was ambidextrous," the 31-year-old artist told AFP.

Then a journalist asked her as a joke whether she could also use her feet as well. Challenge accepted.

Starting out "for fun" and after a few mishaps with sticky tape between her toes, she tried using plasticine to keep the brush between her toes.

It was a success and she posted a video of her exploits online, quickly becoming a viral hit. Orders flooded in.

She is so skilled that only she can tell the difference between paintings crafted with her hands and those with her feet.

"I can really see a big difference. It's a bit less precise," she said, performing her skills at a museum in Vlaardingen, her home town in the south of the Netherlands.



Latest Tests Show Seine Water Quality Was Substandard When Paris Mayor Took a Dip

 Boats carrying members of delegations sail along the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Boats carrying members of delegations sail along the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Latest Tests Show Seine Water Quality Was Substandard When Paris Mayor Took a Dip

 Boats carrying members of delegations sail along the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Boats carrying members of delegations sail along the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Tests results released Friday showed the water quality in the River Seine was slightly below the standards needed to authorize swimming — just as the Paris Olympics start.

Heavy rain during the opening ceremony revived concerns over whether the long-polluted waterway will be clean enough to host swimming competitions, since water quality is deeply linked with the weather in the French capital.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a highly publicized dip last week in a bid to ease fears. The Seine will be used for marathon swimming and triathlon.

Daily water quality tests measure levels of fecal bacteria known as E. coli.

Tests by monitoring group Eau de Paris show that at the Bras Marie, E. coli levels were then above the safe limit of 900 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters determined by European rules on June 17, when the mayor took a dip.

The site reached a value of 985 on the day the mayor swam with Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet and the top government official for the Paris region, Marc Guillaume, joined her, along with swimmers from local swimming clubs.

At two other measuring points further downstream, the results were below the threshold.

The statement by Paris City Hall and the prefecture of the Paris region noted that water quality last week was in line with European rules six days out of seven on the site which is to host the Olympic swimming competitions.

It noted that "the flow of the Seine is highly unstable due to regular rainfall episodes and remains more than twice the usual flow in summer," explaining fluctuating test results.

Swimming in the Seine has been banned for over a century. Since 2015, organizers have invested $1.5 billion to prepare the Seine for the Olympics and to ensure Parisians have a cleaner river after the Games. The plan included constructing a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, renovating sewer infrastructure, and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.