Cape Town –To mark Nelson Mandela's 95th birthday in July, the largest ever portrait of the former president by South African artist Paul Blomkamp is up for sale, reports The Huffington Post.

The portrait of Mandela, who raised concerns about his health after being hospitalised with a lung infection in March, is 4.2m x 4.2m and is priced at R2.75m.

The portrait took 14 months to complete and consists of acrylic paints on nine individual canvasses. Blomkamp told Huffington Post that he "wanted to capture Mandela's legendary smile in perpetuity. He has one of the most captivating faces I have seen."

'Viewed from space'

Blomkamp created this painting, together with paintings of Oprah Winfrey and Richard Branson to launch his "Mandela Head in the Karoo" Project, he said on his Facebook page.

The project is set to measure 50x50km and will consist of millions and millions Karoo schrubs planted and arranged "as to exactly replicate the face of Mandela". "It will endure as a living memorial to the qualities this great man has shared so uniquely with the World.

The 'HEAD' will also be viewed from space and images will be constantly relayed back to Earth to provide an ongoing animated image of Mandela's face that will last for as long as our Planet spins in our Universe."

At the age of 19, Blomkamp was commissioned to produce the (then) largest stained glass window in the world and has gained fame for his stained glass work on sky scrapers and churches in the Gauteng area. The portrait of Nelson Mandela is being sold via VeryFirstTo in London. In the photo below, Blomkamp stands next to the finished work of his Nelson Mandela
portrait:

http://www.channel24.co.za/News/Local/Huge-Mandela-portrait-to-mark-95th-bday-20130516

Johannesburg -A South African artist has managed to produce one of the largest reflection’s of the country’s biggest icon. But despite the global interest, he wants to keep it right at home. It took Paul Blomkamp hundreds of hours of inspiration, creativity and plain old hard work to get this masterpiece finished. In fact, he doesn’t even have the space to display it, in its full glory --and it has never even left his studio. His work is a representation of Nelson Mandela on a massive scale --measuring 4.2 metres by 4.2 metres --using acrylic paint. However, it is not just any piece. It comes together as one artwork when the nine canvases are attached. The artist isn’t putting a price on the work, even though he’s already been offered millions by foreign art lovers. Blomkamp has his heart set on on only selling it to a local buyer. “I got very ill and I realised I needed a lot of energy and I read up a lot of books," said Blomkamp. "We are made up of bits of scintillating energy and that’s what I wanted to paint --not just a cosmetic face. "And Mandela, more than anyone else we know, has used this current of energy in such a way that he has allowed kindness and peace and tolerance. "I wanted this strength and it forced me to look inwards.”

http://www.enca.com/life/epic-madiba-artwork-looking-home-sa

I am really strugling to post the potrait picture! Will post once i find a way to. Or check.the links.