Two women, one well dressed, the other – perhaps best described as a bit of a slob – are sitting on a street bench. Both have a paper cup of some drink in their hands – probably picked up at a nearby stall. They are in a deep discussion of some problem. The woman in yellow looks worried. The other is offering helpful ideas and encouragement. After all, that is what friends are for. Quite possibly it is about a man, or a relative, or maybe about a health issue. All the usual possibilities. It is left to the viewer to decide. I wanted to push the images a little, to make them more dramatic. The story is the key element. The result is a rather more styled painting than my more recent work. Last summer I took some photographs at the Thursday evening Street Fair and Farmer's Market, while visiting Palm Springs, California. In the background of one photograph, very small, I saw these two women sitting on a bench and talking. From that fragment I developed this painting.