My first portraits

When I started painting, I drew my inspiration from the Mauritian artists around me. During my outings with France Staub on Saturdays, I was lucky to meet Roger Charoux, Serge Constantin and Yves David who painted together. I always admired the landscapes of Roger Charoux and my parents owned one of his paintings illustrating a flame tree in front of which I spent hours. Serge Constantin was an endearing person and an outstanding artist. Most of the time Serge painted watercolours and chose unexpected subject matters.

Oil painting from 1989 by Mauritian artist Pascal Lagesse

There was also a painter from whom I admired the portraits called Marcel Lagesse. We were related by an ancestor going back to the 18th century and I never got to know him. I tried numerous times to ask him if I could join him when he went painting but he never accepted. He was a solitary painter and he never realised that a moment with him would have meant the whole world for me.

I got inspired from pictures of his portraits that I found in books ant the portraits you can see here are somewhat true to his technique even if I never had his talent.