Fast Fiction: Making Grey
'Why not take up painting and be more fulfilled?' the artist asks the stockbroker, going on to explain colours, that if you mix red with yellow you get orange. But what do you get when you mix red with green?
Richard Mallinson tells a tale of the artist and his model.
'Why not take up painting and be more fulfilled?' Mark Kapple asked.
'But I haven't a clue about the use of colour,' I said.
'Well, all you need to know about colour is that the sun's light is white and can be broken up into the colours of the rainbow.'
He turned from his easel and looked at me. I said nothing.
'A red surface,' he went on, 'is one that reflects the red rays but absorbs all the others. A white surface reflects -'
'I think I'll stick to stockbroking,' I cut in.
He was undaunted. 'If you mix red with yellow,' he said, 'you'll get orange and if you mix red with green you'll get -' but I was out of the studio by then.
*
One sunny afternoon, weeks later, I returned.
'Meet Anna,' said Mark as I went in, 'she's my new model... Go on, look at her, she's used to it, aren't you, my love?' The girl smiled at him, then winked at me.
'Isn't she a dazzler,' said Mark, delicately painting.
'A dazzler indeed,' I said, smiling at her.
'Now,' Mark said, 'do you want to know about mixing red with green?'
'Well,' I said, 'I think you're going to tell me, whether I want to know or not.'
There was a giggle from Anna. She rolled her eyes.
'You should hear some of the fings he says to me,' she said - and we laughed. 'In the middle of the night, too,' she added and we laughed again and then stayed silent while Mark painted.
*
That studio scene - the radiant girl, Mark in his colourful smock at the easel, myself in my usual pinstriped suit - stays vividly in my mind's eye.
And I sometimes wonder what became of those two. Did drink or drugs get them? Or simply the years?
By the way, red and green make grey. As if it matters.
