Over the past six months or so, I've painted about 50 portraits - mainly of people who live in our village of Mézin in southwest France.

For some reason which I can't put my finger on, I recently painted the double portrait SALOMÉ.

The idea may have to me when I was looking at a book of Renaissance subjects (many of which would require an "Adult" classification if produced today). Or, perhaps it was because the church in our village is called St Jean-Batiste (which translates as St John the Baptiste), and there's a great stained glass window in the west front depicting St John having his head chopped off. On the other hand it may have been done simply because I felt like doing a figurative painting, and neither of the models (my wife and I) charge a sitting fee.

Whatever the reason, I liked the result and intend to have a crack at a few more classical themes. The next painting in this series is Saint Sebastian.