A SWINDON artist rubbed shoulders with Hollywood royalty over the weekend after being commissioned to paint a portrait for actress Jane Fonda.

Anna Mazzotta, who grew up in the town, presented her creative masterpiece to the 79-year-old when she took to the stage in ‘An Evening with Jane Fonda’, hosted by Graham Norton, at The Savoy Theatre.

Anna was approached to do the portrait of the legendary actress by promoter Rocco Buonvino who organised the intimate chat for 2,000 fans on Sunday.

As well as talking about her two-time Academy Award win and her two BAFTAs, Jane also spoke about her work as a writer, political activist, former fashion model and fitness guru.

“The painting was a complete surprise for Jane and I just walked on the stage at the end of the talk when Graham Norton introduced me and she was amazed,” Anna said.

Growing up in the town, Anna attended Commonweal School before going to the arts college in Euclid Street where she completed her foundation course.

After completing her course, Anna, who is one of the youngest winners of the prestigious Jerwood Drawing Prize, secured a place at her first-choice Wimbledon College of Arts before being offered a place at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London.

She has remained in the capital ever since.

“For as long as I can remember I have been drawing and painting and my time at college was absolutely brilliant,” she said.

“I have always loved musical theatre and glamour and so my work is very expressionist with a modern twist and a lot of people say my style is unique.

“I was quite nervous about going on stage and I really had to pinch myself that it was happening. But once I was on the stage with Graham and Jane they put me to rest and it was just amazing.

“When I took it on stage, Jane just said ‘wow this is definitely Barbarella’ and she was thrilled by it, which was lovely.”

Influenced by art deco and exaggerated expressions, the unique piece of artwork took Anna around two weeks to complete and now, after this success, she has been lined up to do a similar painting for Whoopi Goldberg among many other Hollywood stars.

Anna, who still has family in Swindon, tries to visit as often as she can but still considers the town to be the place where her passion for art first started.

She said: “I am very fond of Swindon and I have great memories of the town in my college days. I had such great teachers and I think it was my tutors that gave me the inspiration to follow this.”