June Mendoza was known for her gimlet eye: hazel in colour, piercingly perceptive, able to charm anyone into sitting for her. She was often commissioned to paint the royal family — Elizabeth II five times, plus three Prince Philips, three Charleses, two Dianas and one Queen Mother, all at breakneck speed because “they’re all so busy, poor dears”. But what she enjoyed most was making non-commissioned “pickups” — catching someone’s eye, liking the look of them and making a proposal.
One third of her output were pickups from the street or the greengrocer’s. Madeline Bell, the jazz singer, was spied across a restaurant (“I had a ball with her,” Mendoza recalled) and the actress Janie Dee was sitting in front of Mendoza in the stalls
