Mother and Child of the Clin by L. Martel

This is a 20″ x 24″ oil on canvas painted in 1988 when we were living in Paris. Our younger daughter was in school there and the class she was in was called the Clin. Each day I would walk her to school and bring her home later in the day. It wasn’t far from where we lived. While waiting for her to come out of school there were a lot of women from North West Africa and they wore such colourful clothes. I noticed one lady who was a real beauty with her little baby tied to her back. I asked her if I could take her picture. She was not happy about that so I can only guess that she was an illegal. I never saw her again. She probably moved to another school. I felt badly that I probably caused her a great deal of anxiety. The painting was done from memory.