Portrait of Catherine Dolan by Marevna Rivera

 

 

Back sometime in the late sixties, my stepfather John Anthony West met the extraordinary
MariKa Rivera in Walpole Park, Ealing, London. As dog walkers do, they chatted, and Marika
became a friend of the family. Many outrageous dinner parties were thrown, and attended.
Marika lived round the corner with her fragile mother Marevna. Marevna, an accomplished painter
in her own right was lover and pupil of Diego Rivera, the famous Mexican painter.

Whatever the true relationship between them, Marevna certainly took the name of Rivera, although they were never married. This must have been one of the last paintings she did, as she was very old and fragile at the time, I would say in her mid eightees.

I have no idea where the painting is now, I guess Marika still has it, but I'm not even sure if she is
still with us. Marika is quite a character and was often seen in films of the 50's and 60's, usually playing
small parts, but always outrageously larger than life characters. She was in the kitch "Girl on a Motorcycle".
In the 70's and 80's she was often seen doing one woman cabaret shows around London.