Janet Chapman was a commissioned portrait. Janet and Malcom Chapman were the young couple who moved into my mother’s flat at #9 Riviera, after she moved to her house on Copsewood Avenue, see her biography for details. They soon became great friends of the family. I recall that after my mother had moved to the South of France, that very nicely they would occasionally take me out of my border school on the weekends for a nice meal and a bit time in the outside world.

Janet was a very tall and strikingly beautiful women that I think is well portrayed in this painting. Appropriately, the background depicts the English Channel as seen from that same flat on Bournemouth’s East Overcliff Drive. Unfortunately, I think the old color photograph that I scanned for this image has lost some of its colour due to age even though I’ve tried to bring some of that back.