Paul and Alex

This portrait of Paul finally brings the blog up to date. I haven't done a large portrait like this for a few years and it was great to be able to do one now in a matter or weeks rather than months. (Although if I sat at my desk all day it wouldn't even take that long. I always need to put them away for a few days to see them more objectively.) Paul is fifteen and I intend to do portraits of both the boys more frequently now as they are changing so quickly.




















Paul as he was in the spring, just had a haircut. Quick sketch on cheap paper.




















Paul as he was in the summer. Given up on the hairdressers! Finding a competent one in Geneva hasn't been easy!




















Alex, playing on the PlayStation listening to music. The first half of the summer was unbearably hot in the house so he took to the basement to keep cool. He's the scruffy one who loves music, preferably loud! He finds lots of new stuff I've never heard of but he likes to ask me about the seventies and eighties, he says it must have been cool to have been a teenager then too. He's thinks it's funny I know so many lyrics, he's always trying to find one I don't know!

A couple ofweeks ago I got a surprise when we saw some old footage of Queen at the Hammersmith Odean in 1975, (it was broadcast by the Old Grey Whistle Test for Christmas) he still can't believe that I was there in the front row, next to one of the cameras . I caught one of Freddie's roses at the end too, kept it pressed in my diary for ages afterwards. Alex doesn't believe it, he thinks I've lost my marbles! (I saw them in November too. Nope, doesn't believe that.) I left the concert and went straight to Christmas mass dressed in black with black nail varnish on one hand. God, were my ears ringing! Yeah, those were the days!