The activities in Paris and across France of the Gilets Jaunes inspired me to create a series of paintings based on images found online. The bright yellow contrasting with the menacing black of the police, the smoke and occasional French flag all go into the mix of my take on proceedings.

A big thanks to two recent buyers, one Yorkshire (steel mill) and one Lancashire (Gilets Jaunes x2), who sent positive replies once they had the paintings in their possession. There's always a tentative period between sending the work and receiving a reply, wondering if the buyer likes the painting once they have seen the real thing. in addition, watercolours are usually glazed which changes the appearance again.

Anyone who has visited New York, or seen the city in films will know about the steam billowing from red and white striped pipes. I'm still not sure how or why these things exist and prefer it to remain a mystery. In this contre jour painting, I have used a reduced palette to allow the red and white of the pipe, don't walk signal and the flag to stand out.