"The Painting" drabbles by Neville Hunt

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Paid up, but forever down

The Painting #16

There was no sign of an intruder, nothing broken, nothing out of place.

The very next morning, Giorgio received £600, in cash, delivered by courier. The 'bank of mum and dad' had agreed a loan, with interest. That interest was not financial, but they were most interested in every aspect of Dawn’s expenditure, debts and lifestyle. Her ways must change.

The painting miraculously lost its signs of a gunshot and the unblemished picture of Dawn was restored. But anyone seeing it might wonder why on earth she wore such a glum face.

But maybe Giorgio had seen into her soul.

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Spoked

The Painting #15

In the centre of the painting it was as if the imaginary mirror, reflecting its image of Dawn, had been impacted with a single gunshot right between her eyes. The imaginary mirror glass appeared to have been shattered in radial lines to the sides and the four corners of the painting, a bit like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. And yet there was no glass and no gunshot, it was the picture that had changed. At the sight of these ‘further steps’, Dawn screamed as if her very life were in mortal danger.

Maybe it was… but from what?

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Nothing broken

The Painting #14

The glass smashed on the floor as she raced into her bedroom, fearful on the one hand of what she would find and yet needing to know what was happening. Gingerly she nosed round the door and looked towards the bedroom window, the only thing she could imagine that could have been smashed, particularly as her precious painting wasn’t yet framed. Nothing. No sign of damage to the window.

Then she turned slowly taking in anything breakable in her sparsely appointed bedroom. Reading lamp OK, china ornaments OK, water glass OK. Then she turned fully to look at her portrait.

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Getting smashed

The Painting #13

On the 61st day from when she'd collected her precious painting, Dawn arrived back at her flat after work. She went into her bedroom to gaze at her pride and joy, the painting hung on the wall opposite her bedroom window. Then off to her kitchen to prepare supper and pour herself a glass or so of Prosecco. Well, a girl had to live after all, and it was Friday night!

All of a sudden, she heard a crack and smashing sound from her bedroom, like a gunshot. She dropped the glass of fizz immediately, like a time-delayed ricochet.

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"Your bluff!"

The Painting #12

Giorgio's reminder had irritated Dawn so much, she decided that there was no way she would pay the man. The threat of ‘further steps’ didn’t worry Dawn. What could he do? She would call his bluff and if she ended up paying him anything to stop him pestering her, it would be just a nominal amount with the threat that she could expose him to the tax authorities. She wasn’t one to be bullied. Dawn seemed to have conveniently forgotten that Giorgio had produced an excellent painting for her and it was only fair that she should pay for it.

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Ante-upped

The Painting #11

Given that many of her friends were also Giorgio's customers, he had no problem finding Dawn. After waiting 50 days from collection of the painting, he hand delivered a reminder of her agreement to have settled his account 20 days earlier. Now, it read, the sum payable was increased to £600, payable no later than 60 days after she had collected the picture, and in accordance with his terms of business, to which she had agreed. He informed her that if she hadn’t paid the £600 now due in full by those 60 days, then ‘further steps would be taken’.

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Magical powers and Pandora's Box

The Painting #10

Dawn's accountant friend agreed that he was probably the wrong side of the Inland Revenue, but did warn that she should be careful, because he was Italian and might have ‘mafia connections’ and equally importantly, Giorgio seemed to possess some strange, ‘almost magical’ powers.

Dawn ignored her friend’s advice, if only because she simply didn’t have the money. Her only recourse might have been to contact the ‘bank of mum and dad’, but she had no intention of doing so as that would open Pandora’s box, prompting a whole load of connected and unconnected questioning, accusations and recriminations. No way!

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Whose problem?

The Painting #9

But on the other hand, her logic was ‘If I owe him the money… then that’s his problem isn’t it?’ She still didn’t have the money so he would have to wait. Tough! He didn’t charge VAT, so he was probably working illegally, so he would probably take it no further.

Dawn was correct in the fact that Giorgio was neither registered for VAT nor collecting and paying any and might well have been working outside the law. She mentioned this to an accountant friend of hers who was one of the people who had originally recommended Giorgio to her.

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Tick-Tock

The Painting #8

Giorgio really had no option but to agree but decided that he would be very firm about prompt payment at the end of the 30 days. Nonetheless, he sensed that Dawn might have no intention of paying.

Dawn was very pleased with her painting and proudly showed it off to friends and acquaintances. Everyone who saw it agreed how nice she looked in the picture and how realistic it was. She completely forgot about the clock ticking down and how shortly she was either going to have to pay up the £500 or have Giorgio chasing her for the money.

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Time to pay

The Painting #7

Needless to say, Giorgio produced for Dawn a painting of the person she wanted herself to be, even down to the special ‘mirror face’ she adopted to improve what she saw reflected. She was hugely flattered and grateful to him, except that she had no idea where she was going to get the £500 for the painting. When he realised that Dawn wasn’t able to pay for her portrait, he grudgingly agreed 30 days settlement terms. Dawn had argued that because her sitting had been as a result of a last-minute cancellation, she needed time to get the money.

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Captured... but unharmed

The Painting #6

As good luck would have it, a cancellation did come up and, true to his word, Giorgio contacted Dawn and arranged for her to sit for him. Brimming with excitement, Dawn skipped off work with alacrity.

As with all his commissions, Giorgio was extremely quick at capturing the very essence of his customers. The speed with which he put paint to canvas was uncanny and, having released the sitters, he relied upon just what he had seen and interpreted to take his initial brush strokes to a very high level of finish. It was as if he possessed supernatural forces.

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Paying the piper

The Painting #5

More to get rid of her than anything else, Giorgio agreed that if there was a cancellation, he would call her. To make sure she was serious, he told her that his fee would be £500, which was non-negotiable.

Dawn hadn’t thought about the money side of things. Right now she was rather seriously overdrawn at the bank and maxed out on her credit cards, largely because of her impatient need to keep up with those she most admired. ‘Can’t wait; won’t wait’ was her mantra. Never mind, Giorgio must wait for his money; once she had the painting.

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Best versions

The Painting #4

What each customer saw was the person they wanted to be, not necessarily the most handsome or pretty in the world, but a realistic ‘best version’ of themselves. That was flattering. And that was what kept Giorgio’s prices high and his order book full.

Dawn heard from friends all about Giorgio. She'd seen some likenesses he done for friends and decided she must have him paint her too. But she was impatient. She knew he had a long waiting list of customers. She went to his studio and pleaded with him to find time for her to sit for him.

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Altered images

The Painting #3

Whilst many might not like what they saw in the mirror, most people liked what they saw in his paintings because of how he presented the image. The difference between what the sitter might see in a mirror and what he produced as a portrait was that he had an uncanny knack of understanding what it was about the person he was painting that he or she might not like and Giorgio would make slight adjustments to the image accordingly. These adjustments allowed the sitter to accept fully the image produced as a accurate likeness, without need for forensic examination.

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Reverse

The Painting #2

Giorgio didn't produce photographs, but mirror images of his sitters almost as though he had placed a mirror in front of them and painted from what he saw in the mirror. But when Giorgio painted, there wasn’t a mirror in sight. How he managed to reverse the images was uncertain but he did so without recourse to any gadgets or tricks, he simply painted what he saw in his subjects. And therefore, the sitter would see exactly what he or she was used to seeing. And the greater the vanity of the sitter, the more likely it was to please.

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Talk of the town

The Painting #1

He was the talk of the town. An amazing artist specialising in portraits. Giorgio, a young Italian, apparently from Florence, had rented a tiny studio in which he produced wonderful creations. Giorgio seemed able to capture the very essence of his sitters and in ways that were extremely popular. Young or old, male or female, his skill with his brushes and paints was stunning. And the word had got around.

Some people said that the images that Giorgio produced could almost have been photographic. But what he produced was not from photography, but his skill alone, and very fine indeed.