Author : MM Kent
Publisher : Wings and Roots LLC
ISBN 13 : 9781735081212
Total Pages : 396 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (812 download)
Book Synopsis A Coward's Guide to Oil Painting - the Novel by : MM Kent
Download or read book A Coward's Guide to Oil Painting - the Novel written by MM Kent and published by Wings and Roots LLC. This book was released on 2020-07-15 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mariah Justice is a disillusioned college graduate who sets off with friends in an old shool bus, looking for the perfect place. It is February of 1969. The group stops for Mardi Gras in New Orleans where she finds work at a Po-Boy shop, summons the courage to pose nude as an artist's model, and has an affair with war hero Blaine Grayson. When Blaine leaves for Mexico on business, Mariah lands in Austin. She has an improbable intimate encounter with Cliff Grayson at a waterfall in the dark, but they have to separate before she finds out who he is. Cliff gets in trouble with the law over the events of that night, then loses his job and escapes to Mexico with Blaine, his older brother. When Blaine's airplane crashes and Cliff goes to San Miguel de Allende looking for clues to what happened, he begins to have troubling 'communions' with with his brother that defy his understanding of reality. Confronted by a shortage of facts, he applies art principles to life, changes his name, and develops his own method of investigation. When Mariah learns about the plane crash, she heads to Mexico for her own reasons, also looking for answers about Blaine, but in private moments she longs to find her mystery man from the waterfall. Cliff and Mariah split the telling of the tale in alternating chapters. As they each get closer to the truth about what happened to Blaine, their quests seem to be taking them farther apart, but they are all the time converging toward a perfect place on a southern shore. We can only hope . . . Colorful characters and suspense-filled scenes at a mysterious hacienda outside San Miguel give the story a South of the Border flavor. Sexually curious folks in Austin add spice, and beach scenes in Zihuatanejo provide that patch of blue where the eye can rest. The boundary between what's moral and what's legal gives A Coward's Guide to Oil Painting an outlaw feel, and the principles of painting take it to the level of Art. Excerpt: [Charlie] inspected a spent tobacco ember in his pipe. "I don't think my own art really makes a difference for anyone." "It does for me," I said, with honest appreciation. My mentor nodded, then caught my eye. "Thanks, CJ, that means a lot." "You know, you should write a book." I said. "No, you're the one who should write the book." "But you have all the answers." "And you have all the time. Besides, I don't have all the answers." "At least you have all the questions," I allowed. "That's the truth," he chuckled and cocked his head. "What are you going to call this book of yours?" The notes I'd made in my sketchbook filled page after page, without even touching many of the principles Charlie had taught me. I realized the book was already underway. The first chapter would be about the importance of observation-of paying attention. I remembered my father always exhorting me with those same words, "Pay attention!" Then I considered how different Charlie was from Dad and said, "I think I'll call it A Coward's Guide to Oil Painting."
