L'Artiste
Proverbs 6:13
He winketh with his eyes,
he speaketh with his feet,
he teacheth with his fingers;
Lady Ambrose and Nara were walking down the street, peering into shops and discussing where to eat lunch when Nara gripped her arm, “Look, My Lady! An artist!”
The man indicated was seated on a small stool and painting on a large canvas. He was a young man with that slightly long hair that artists seemed to affect and a short, scraggly beard. And wearing a beret, of course. Rather fair skinned and with delicate hands. And it looked like he rarely ate!
They crept up and looked over his shoulder. He was painting the street in front of him, but without any people and at a slightly later time of day. No doubt he had started yesterday evening… or even before.
“Good morning, ladies,” he said over his shoulder, and Nara gave a brief, startled giggle at being called a ‘lady’.
“Oh, we’re sorry for disturbing you,” Lady Ambrose said.
“Surely no man can be disturbed at the attention of two such lovely ladies.”
Nara frowned. “I ain’t no lovely lady,” she said, and the man turned further around and looked her up and down.
“My mistake,” he said and turned back to his painting.
Hadassah had always loved paintings, so she stood and watched for another few minutes, eventually asking, “How long have you been working on this?”
“That depends. I have been in the village for a week, sketching madly. I think I did a hundred sketches. Yesterday at noon, I looked them all over and decided on this view for my first real study, and started on it yesterday afternoon. I got up at five o’clock this morning, so strong was my muse, even though the sun was wrong, and have been, since, doing such things as I can do before the light arranges itself.”
“You’re not putting in any people?”
“I do not put people in my architectural studies.”
“But do you ever draw people?”
“Oh, yes. And paint them. I like to think of my style as similar to Balvoine.”
Hadassah had no idea who that was and didn’t like to reveal her ignorance, so she contented herself with saying, “Oh, how interesting.”
She stood there for a few more minutes before Nara pulled on her arm. “Shall we continue shopping, My Lady?”
“Oh, yes, certainly.” She did not wish to make a spectacle of herself standing here watching an artist!
“Adieu, my Lady,” the artist said as they walked away.
Hadassah had thought that was the end of it, but, two hours later, as she and Nara sat at a rather long lunch discussing, of all things, bread rolls, she felt a presence and a voice from behind her said, “Would you mind if I joined you for a moment?”
Her heart raced. Was it proper? She looked at Nara for help but before either of them could say anything, the artist had pulled out a chair and sat down.
“You will forgive the presumption, My Lady, but am I to understand that you are the wife of the Duke?”
“Well, yes,” she mumbled, horribly embarrassed. What was he doing here?
“Well, then, I would beg an indulgence of you. It would be a great honour for me to do a study of that building, your residence. Perhaps even several studies. Could you perhaps instruct your staff to grant me admittance to the grounds?”
Hadassah looked helplessly at Nara, who seemed just as put out. “I, um, if you would call on the butler and, if he makes no objection, you may say that you have talked to me and, umm, I don’t either. Make objection, that is.”
“Thank you, My Lady,” and, after taking her hand and kissing it, he walked off.
“Well, I never!” Nara said. “So brazen.”
“Well, yes, but… I mean… he is an artist. It must be difficult getting permission.”
“I suppose.”
“Well, we need to go back to the dressmaker with the fabric we have purchased. I can’t walk to the village by myself, it isn’t proper. So you will need some more town dresses.”
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Thank you for coming round Arthur’s Substack. I hope and pray it will be a blessing to you.
Arthur publishes with Wise Path Books and includes the children’s/YA books:
The Bobtails meet the Preacher’s Kid: A Christian historical fiction chapter book about four orphans who go to live with their aunt on a dairy farm.
The Bobtails and the Cousins: The sequel to Preacher’s Kid. The aunt has married, and the cousins come to visit. Meaning town kids dealing with chores and manure and…
The Bobtails go to France: The sequel to cousins. The Bobtails, and Preacher’s Kid, get to take a trip to New York, London, Paris, and a small town in France. To get some cheese.
and
No Ordinary School: A brilliant but socially clueless boy gets recruited for a special school. Where he makes a lot of money, gets a girl, and solves a mystery.
As well as GK Chesterton’s wonderful book, “What’s Wrong with the World”, for which ‘Arthur’ wrote most of the annotations. The book is a series of essays on how modern politics has gotten the wrong prescription for the wrong diagnosis.
Quite a few chapters of the Bobtails and No Ordinary School are here on this substack as audio.
I also write as Von, and I encourage you to check out that substack. There is a lot of theology and politics there, as well as quotes, poems, other articles, and links to other Science Fiction. But ‘Von’ also is publishing some serial books and stories. Much more adult and serious books than here, for the most part. Some of them.