What  I strive to express is actually a fantasy , a state of womanhood in a different reality.
What I paint is that aspect of her femininity…..the soft ,the sensuous ,the romantic.
My fantasy women are …like the characters in a Jane Austin novel, preoccupied only with 
the pursuit of leisure.Their environment is one of richness and beauty .Their interests are the
Arts…Music, Dance and Literature.,Their life style somewhat hedonistic maybe even
decadent.
 The Faces are archetypal, but not typical , i.e. ,I am not depicting any one character.The
emotional expressions are minimal,so as not to detract attention from the play of colours and
textures,that make up the total ambience.
My women represent that secret inner core of sentiment and feeling ,common to all women.
I find an analogy in the state of women today ,who find themselves worshiping at the
temples of the beauty salons
in order to retain their youth and to mold themselves on to
an image of Barby-like looks,and hourglass figures prevalent in the Magazines.
Leisure may have taken on a different tact but women still seek fashion and beauty wherever
they live
,according to the dictates of society and the beauty industry.

So ,what I aim for cannot be achieved by painting alla prima ;the depth of the underlying
surfaces is what enriches
 even simple subjects ,and enhances the ‘antique’ look and accentuates that most elusive
feminine quality;

 her indefinable mysteriousness.
S.Francis