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CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
Maxi stood at Bunny Howard’s front door clutching her blue-and-white-striped tote and waiting for her to answer. After seeing Bert and Harry at Sandcastles, she’d realized she needed to do everything she could to finish that painting, so she’d dug out the card Muriel had given her and called.
Maxi had never really taken lessons. Art sort of came naturally to her. But Bunny had sounded very nice, and she was looking forward to hearing her advice. Ideally, the lesson would go well.
The door opened to reveal a cheerful senior citizen who was about a foot shorter than Maxi. She was wearing a loose, paint-covered smock and white cotton pants. Her gray hair was up in a messy bun. Maxi liked her right away.
“Maxi? Bunny smiled and opened the door. “Come in. I’ve seen your work at the gallery, and it’s quite amazing, so I was surprised when you called for a lesson.”
Maxi felt a rush of pride at the compliment. It had taken her a long time to be able to accept compliments gracefully. “Thank you. I have a specific problem, and Muriel said you might be able to help me.”
“Ahh, well, she would know. Why don’t you sit down for some coffee and tell me about the problem?”
Bunny led her through the tidy living room. Though the older, ranch-style house was small, it seemed bigger because Bunny had kept the decor in light whites and beiges and had furniture with simple lines. Unlike most older people’s houses, Bunny’s residence was not cluttered with “stuff.”
The Danish modern dining room table was already set with cups and saucers and a little plate of shortbread cookies. The earthy smell of coffee wafted out from an old-school percolator on the sideboard.
Beyond the dining room, Maxi could see a sunroom that had probably been an addition. This room had several sets of sliding glass doors to let in maximum light and was where Bunny had set up two easels and paint supplies. It looked out over her backyard and the woods beyond as well as the neighbor’s yard, which had a large garden that appeared to be somewhat out of control.
Maxi told Bunny about the commission to paint Goblin and the problem she was having capturing the dog’s likeness. She’d brought one of her earlier attempts at painting Goblin as well as a practice painting of Rembrandt and Picasso and showed them to Bunny.
Bunny studied the canvases and nodded. “I see. It’s the light in the eyes. That makes them come alive. Come on, I’ll show you.”
At the easel, Bunny sketched in the head of a dog then added fur with quick brush strokes. “This is just a simple sketch for context. I’ll go into more detail when I get to the eye, since that’s where I think your problem stems from.”
A few strokes of the brush later, Bunny had a pretty good rendition of a dog’s eye on the canvas.
“See, you use the reflection to give it depth,” Bunny said as she added a white dot to the corner of the eye.
Maxi nodded.
“And I always mix at least five colors into the iris.” Bunny added some blobs of blue, green, and yellow paint to her pallet and painstakingly added them to the iris area. She stood back and waved at Maxi’s canvas. “Now you try.”
Maxi picked up the brush, and the two women painted side by side with Bunny instructing. Soon Maxi was lost in the creative act, absorbing all of Bunny’s instructions and thinking about how she could apply them to the painting of Goblin.
After an hour, Bunny put down her brush and stretched. “Well, I think that’s enough for today. You’re coming along, don’t you think?”
“I do. Thanks so much.” Maxi stepped back to admire her work, her eyes drifting to the garden next door. “I love this room. And the backyard is so scenic. Looks like your neighbor needs to do some yard work, though.”
“That’s Frank Weston’s house. He got sick, and it’s been empty for some time. I was keeping the garden going in case he got better. Sadly, he died, and his daughter is cleaning it out.”
That sounded like Jane’s guest at Tides. “Is her name Liz?”
Bunny looked surprised. “Yes, do you know her?”
“Not really. I knew the family a bit from growing up in town but not well. She’s staying at Tides, and my friend Jane runs the inn, so she mentioned her to me.” Maxi walked over to the window to view the garden area more closely. This late in the season, most of the plants were dying off, but she could see some bright-red tomatoes waiting to be picked and some pumpkins just getting started. “I wonder why she doesn’t stay at the house instead of Tides?”
“I wondered that too. I’ve chatted to her a bit. Seems like a nice lady, but if you ask me, she has some unresolved issues from her youth.”
Maxi turned to face Bunny. “That sounds serious.”
“It’s not, really. I think she might be making a mountain out of a molehill and misremembering. Frank told me that for some reason, she got cold toward him when she left home for college. Poor Frank. He loved her so much and blamed himself for pushing her too hard in high school. He always just wanted her to succeed. Wanted the best for her. I think she might have been a bit too headstrong. You know how teenagers are.”
Maxi thought about her own kids and their high school days. Luckily, they had been good students, but there were times when she’d had to play the bad guy and they’d fought it. They’d had more than their share of arguments. Was that the only reason Liz hadn’t wanted to stay in the house, or did Bunny not know the whole story? “That’s too bad. I hope she makes her peace.”
“Me too. She seems to be coming around. One really needs to hold onto family and treasure it. Once you lose that connection, it’s hard to get back.” Bunny looked sad for a few seconds then brightened and turned to the paintings. “Let’s sign our paintings and clean up. I think you did a great job.”
Maxi signed her last name. She’d never been able to come up with a snazzy-looking signature and admired Bunny’s, which looked like a squiggle that resembled aKconnected to anS.
“Thanks for the lesson. I feel like I connected some dots, but maybe I need a bit more instruction. Can I come back another time?”
“Of course. Why don’t you go home and process what you learned? Then you can come back, and we can go deeper into the concepts.”
Maxi paid Bunny and carefully laid her wet canvas in the back of her car. A new sense of hope sprang up inside her. She’d gotten some great tips from Bunny and was becoming more confident that she could do justice to Goblin’s likeness.
