Here I am in the restaurant des Beaux Arts. Some of my happiest memories are of working there. I would arrive about 9 before it was open to the public, and settled down to draw while the waiters laid the tables and the cook worked in the kitchen area which was very visible with an impressive ‘batterie de cuisine’. I was offered coffee and felt so happy, all these wonderful shapes, so I knew I would produce some really good paintings in my studio back home. I did.

At home in working gear

I have always collected objects and I get great pleasure in arranging them – sardine tins, mirrors, a Fornasetti screen, obelisks and broken Staffordshire, they all go into the mix. This room has seen lots of very happy parties, as has my over- decorated kitchen. When I first found this house I knew it was going to be the start of a special relationship. It was full of light and dust which a friend of mine says “gives it a welcome patina”.