ARROW - 47. Chapter 47

With the mural finished, I turned my attention to my painting. I had to paint Carlo with his lamb and Terese on the steps of the church. These paintings I had promised that I would do for them when we were in Europe.

I was on the third floor, preparing canvases anticipating I would now concentrate on my painting when Colin ran upstairs to tell me the mural wasn’t finished.

“Yes, it is finished. I even had you swimming naked in the pool on the roof of our hotel in Barcelona.”

“No, you need to sign it.” Then as a second thought, “I didn’t see that painting of me swimming naked.”

“Go down and look. Also look under the Trevi Fountain.”

I had placed my arrow under the fountain. I didn’t want it to be seen since I didn’t want to be identified, yet.

I started to paint Carlo holding the lambs. Colin would bring me a coffee as I painted. He would look at what I had painted and smile. In fact every time I see Colin he would be smiling.

When I finished the painting of Carlo and the lamb, Colin insisted I make a painting for us. So I did.

“Colin, you need to take this painting and have it sent to Carlo. I think you have his address.”

Colin did send it to Carlo but what he didn’t tell me he added a personal letter. He invited Carlo and his family to visit us. Two months later, I received a letter from Carlo thanking me for the painting and the invitation to visit me. Questioning Colin, that is when he told me he invited them.

The painting of Teresa took a little longer. I did something different. In the right hand corner I painted a miniature of her as a young girl and then in the center I painted her as she was when we visited. Again, Colin wanted a painting for us.”

I started to paint what I remember from our European trip that I hadn’t used in the mural. I painted from Colin’s photos. As I finished a painting, I sent it to Mrs. McNiel’s art gallery and if Colin saw it, I had to paint a copy for us. The art gallery was my income base.

Word about the club spread through Yale. Colin and the board had to decided how they were going to answer the requests for membership. I left that to them. The club was Colin’s and he had the organization to deal with this issue. I did do one thing, I arranged for my carpenter to put in a third bathroom. If we needed more, I’m now sure how we would handle that.

Colin noticed that we were having a few members standing at the bar, no table was available. I called Mom and told her we needed to fit more tables in the club. I was glad she had volunteered to help before we opened. With Colin working with his dad, these small items fell on my shoulder.

Mary with the help of the restaurant supply manger did rearrange the club to include an additional 10 tables. “Armand, if we push the tables together reducing the space around each table we might get an additional 8 more tables. We have added 10 more tables but once those are full, you can only increase the number of tables by 8. Then you will have no more room.”

With all of the additional tables, I was afraid for the mural. I called my electrician and have an infrared beam between the mural and the ropes. If anyone approached the mural inside the ropes, an alarm would go off.

It was a Friday when Colin came home from work and said a newspaper reporter contacted him. “He said the paper heard about the mural and want to run it in their Sunday edition. What do you think?”

“I don’t know. The publicity will bring more requests for club memberships. Have you thought about that?”

“No. What do you think about allowing them to photograph if they don’t tell anyone where the mural exists?”

“That won’t work, someone will tell. All it takes is one.”

“Maybe I can take a photo and submit it. Then they wouldn’t know where it is.”

“Except as soon as a club member sees it, he will tell everyone.”

“Let’s think about it. Tell them you need to contact the painter to get his approval. That should delay them as we think this out.”

GG came to me one night and told me I need to be more creative in my painting. She said painting portraits and objects that are a copy of the mural, isn’t stimulating. I needed to paint from my imagination or what I would like to see. This will give you a new perspective and broaden your skill. I wasn’t sure what she meant, but I would try and follow her suggestions.

I knew Colin knew about GG but he never saw her. So I painted GG sitting in her bedroom looking at the tree with a blue bird. Over the next few months, I painted several canvases. I painted the piano player from the Sunday luncheon, I painted one of the Board members at the desk in the hall way. I painted Colin in front of the church on the staircase wall. Some I painted twice, one for Mrs. McNeil and one for me. I painted Marcel in the kitchen and when I showed it to him he was surprised. He said if he had known he would’ve worn his chef outfit. I told him next time.

I was happy, painting and making my frames kept me busy. Colin asked what would I charge for a portrait. I didn’t know what I would charge. The question stay at the back of my mind. I went to see my professor at Yale.

“Sir, you taught us to paint but you didn’t tell us how much to charge. I have some people who want me to paint a portrait and I don’t know what to charge.”

“Come with me.”

We drove to a gallery in downtown New Haven. “I want you to see what they have priced their paintings. This might give you an idea.” Although I sold my paintings at Mrs. McNeil gallery, she always put them on bid. So I walked through the gallery with my Professor.

We stopped at a landscape which I thought was alright. I knew the artist. He graduated from Yale several years ago and, at the Professors’ invitation, came and gave a talk. The landscape was priced at 1500 dollars. To be honest I didn’t like it. To me it seemed as if he mixed the styles of several artists with the resulting painting being confusing.

Next was a portrait of a woman who was quite well known in Connecticut. “Her family wanted this portrait so they could remember her. It will be a heirloom for that family. The artist that painted this portrait is well known in the art circles. It is on loan to the gallery. The gallery has this insured for 500,000 dollars. The artist had painted famous people as well as presidents.”

“Looking at these haven’t given me an idea of what to charge. They are produced by well known artists.”

“When you paint a portrait, bring it to me and I’ll tell you what it is worth, in my opinion.”

“Ok, I have finished a portrait of a friend of mine as a wedding gift. Tomorrow I’ll drop it off at your office.”

Walking away from the gallery, there was a gleam in the Professor’s eye. He remembered the nude Armand did in his class. If his portrait is as good as that nude, he will be surprised.

Armand went home, he wasn’t happy. His goal of knowing what to charge for a portrait wasn’t achieved.

That evening at the club, Armand was looking at his mural. “What do you think that would bring at an auction.”

Armand turned, it was one of the band. They were on a twenty minute break. “I don’t know. What would you pay for that mural?”

“I don’t know but I doubt I’d ever have enough money to pay for it.”

“I’ll make you a deal, you teach me to play that horn and I’ll teach you how to paint.”

“I think we should stick to what we know. I can’t paint a board with getting paint all over myself.” We laughed as I walked him back to the green room.

That evening after the club had closed, we were sitting on the roof. “Armand, what’s wrong?”

“I had a request to paint a portrait and I don’t know what to charge. I went to Yale and spoke to my professor. He suggested that I give him a portrait and he would tell me what it is worth.”

“That sounds like a good idea. Why don’t you do it?”

“Who should I paint? I have the painting of Theresa.”

“Paint Carlo with out the lamb. Once you get a price you can send it to him and tell him what the picture is worth.”

“Maybe I’ll keep it and give it to him when he visits.” Colin just smiled as he leaned in for a kiss. He said that was his fee for solving my problem.

For the next hour we relaxed in our private spot on the roof.