SALOMÉ

Please don't ask why I painted this double portrait. Because I don't know the answer.
Perhaps the idea came to me when I was looking at a book of Renaissance portraits recently.
Maybe it's because the church in Mézin is called St Jean-Baptiste. (We know him better as St John the Baptist and inside you can see a wonderful stained glass window showing him having his head chopped off).
Or perhaps it's just because I felt the urge to paint a figure composition and neither model charges fees.
Anyway here it is.
And, please, please, no shrinks' telephone numbers. I believe myself to be quite sane, thank you very much.
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THIS IS LUCETTE

Lucette is one of the few women who regularly plays petanque.
The gender politics is very interesting to observe, because she is a very good player - plus she has a natural understanding of strategy. Which means that she has a tendency to tell some players what to do. This sometimes doesn't go down very well with the...um...er...shall we say, more traditional male players, who see this as a takeover bid. And this by, horror of horrors, a FEMALE.
Lucette was the person who first taught me the rules and showed me what to do.
You might say that Lucette taught me how to play, while the men taught me a long list of very bad French swearwords.
Putain de merde, that was over ten years ago.
But thanks for that Lucette. It's been great fun playing for a decade - and improving my lexicon of swearwords as my petanque prowess has gradually crept up to the current level of mediocre player.

PATRICIA DUBOUCH

This is Patricia Dubouch présente le bilan financier du club Buchon Mezinais.
Quite a mouthful that, but it means 'treasurer', I think.
Patricia hurt her leg quite badly in a fall a few years ago, but now she's partly recovered, and, although still in some pain, when she has time, she's back playing petanque.
This is another painting for my summer exhibition of Mezinais et autres Portraits, which translates as 'The people of Mezin and other Portraits'.

BOB HALL ONE AND BOB HALL TWO

No, these are not dynastic numbers, they are the numbers of the respective paintings.
Bob didn't like BOB HALL ONE (too grumpy looking) so I did BOB HALL TWO which was received much more positively, and has taken over from BOB HALL ONE.
This means that BOB HALL ONE (with car) is looking for a new home.
If you know a Bob Hall lookalike, please ask him to contact me to talk about a BARGAIN PORTRAIT.

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