The White Canvas Operation

SEVENTEEN (Sunny P.O.V)

Picture by Kei Meguro. 

'White Canvas Operation' phase eighteen: facing the grief.

Galerie Perrotin. 76 rue de Turenne. Marais. Paris.

"I'm interested in your pencil drawings. To be honest I don't allow the last trends or the art market speculation to led me: I only exhibit what I like and grabs my attention, I might be the only art dealer of the city that goes against prevailing opinions but it seems to be working for me: I sell art works all over the world and I even opened a gallery in Shanghai. I don't care about the success of your colourful paintings in New York, I only want your drawings..."

Emmanuel turns around and points at the massive brightly-lit while wall where several small drawings are framed and hang very close one to another, creating a very interesting asymmetric arrangement. The logical course of action would've been for the works to be hanged leaving some distance between them in order to see them separately but this guy has been in this business for more than 20 years and knows what he's doing: clustering the drawings according to thematic forces the viewer to get closer and pay attention to details grabbing their interest. Once again, the female body is Stella's obsession and the long strokes of neon colour help to highlight the curves of her models.

"I'm glad you like them. I was very young when I drew those and they were some sort of experimentation before changing pencil for oil painting, which is considered the noble material by artists. I'm afraid that the art market disregards drawings because they're simple although you need skill... above all when you draw with pen and have zero margin for error like Sunny does." My personal assistant smiles at me while Mr. Pierrot nods vigorously.

"That's true, pencil drawings were the refuge of a few chosen connoisseurs but nowadays graphic design is the cutting edge of modern art and small-size works, in white and grey that look simple, are a new trend right now and they've almost replaced photography. They're affordable to the general public and we all can have an original work of a renowned artist for one low price. I'll report on the progress but I don't think I'm going to have problems to sell them, I fact I'm going to buy two for my personal collection."

We say goodbye to the art dealer kindly and leave his gallery, our hotel is ten minutes walking down the street and it's a beautiful spring day although Stella is unusually quiet and keeps her eyes fixed on the ground like looking at the buildings causes her pain: obviously Paris brings bittersweet memories to her mind and, even if I understand Cassandra's reasons to force her to confront her grief, I would've liked her to find an easier way. Of course, jet lag doesn't help either and the dark circles under my companion's eyes look as blue as the shirt she's wearing, I think she hasn't slept well... The terraces of the cafés are packed with Parisians eating and I consider doing the same instead of going back to our hotel. We both need to regain our strength in order to endure what's coming this evening. I take my phone and scroll down for a minute while we walk till I find the perfect place.

"Do you know Le Comptoir des Mers?" Stella looks up surprised, like my voice has brought her back from a deep sleep, she seems confused for a moment and shakes her head after looking around blinking. "It's a restaurant but it's also a fish store where old ladies go grocery shopping, they have an extensive menu but everything is subject to change depending on the season and availability of fish. Do you want to give it a try?"

"All right, is it far away from here?"

"Across the street... but we won't order oysters, I beg you..." I point at the red awning and I manage to get a smile from her lips for the first time this morning. Fifteen minutes later we're sitting on a bench upholstered with red leather and there're two glasses of white wine on our small table, a crab and avocado tartar and a lobster salad.