Children of Thailand I – boy was one of a pair of paintings Christine did as a commercial venture to generate income while she was hoping for more regular portrait commissioned work. Her younger son distinctly recalls posing for the body only; he would have been around nine or ten at the time. Christine was a great observer of human anatomy and the distinct facial structures of different ethnic groups. A close examination of the full sized working sketches shows how she has developed the head shape for this painting so that it is rather different from Anthony’s own Nordic shaped head.

Interestingly, the bird is a budgerigar or parakeet and although a native of Australia, it’s sufficiently “tropical” to be appropriate, even though it may be more typically found in an English household. Anthony remembers that this particular bird is a portrait of his Grandmother’s budgie called “Joey” that the family occasionally looked after: “I know its name was “Joey” as every generation of bird that she kept was blue and called the same name.”

It is not exactly certain what became of the painting but it was probably sold, along with its mate, to the big department store in downtown Bournemouth.

Working Sketches

Below are a series of full size sketches, each with progressively more details.