‘Pauline from Fenham’, (2012), Oil on Linen, 60 x 120 cm.

Pauline Armstrong (b 16 May 1938) was an attractive art student I met at art school in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1956. She studied fine art and textile design and lived in Newminster Road, Fenham a western suburb of the city. From the red brick, semi-detached houses it was obviously a lower middle class area. Pauline approximated to the ideal type of female I desired at the time and for about three years I was infatuated with her and courted her assiduously. Unfortunately, she already had a boyfriend and it was he - Malcolm Hall - she eventually married in 1960 and they then emigrated to Africa. I did see her again in London around 1964 for one evening after she separated from her husband. However, they must have resumed their relationship and returned to England after living in the Far East and in Rome (Hall worked for the United Nations) because Mrs Pauline Hall, a yoga teacher, died from cancer in December 2000 in Bath, Somerset.