Re: Saturday, 14 March 1925
In reply to Count Sigismund Bathony (msg #54):
Her eyes lit up. "Yes, yes, yes. Well, follow me, follow me. Upstairs, he is. My Miles." As an afterthought. "Would you like some tea?"
"Miles! We have visitors! Someone to look at your paintings! Maybe buyers."
A young man came midway down the stairs to meet them, mumbling, "hullo." He was wild-looking, disheveled and in need of a shave, longish dark hair matted, dressed in a dark painter's smock splattered with dark stains that seemed to be paint. His voice changed to a loud piercing screech even though his face remained impassive and expressionless. "Are you friends of Aleister's? No matter, come in, come in!" He seemed to tremble slightly, stilling his shaking limbs with some effort.
They were let inside, Mrs. Shipley locking the front door with a click as she closed it. As a group they were led further into the dingy dark house (Miles and front and his mother following everyone) to a stairwell up to the first floor, then (making sure everyone was present) up a second, narrower set of stairs to the door to the garret, which Miles unlocked with a key.
It was dark inside the garret. Under the oddly dark skylight an easel was set, upon it rested a canvas marked with pencil lines of another barely-started painting. To the left of the easel was a closely cluttered bench table with palettes, jars and mugs with crusted paint, brushes carelessly strewn around, turpentine, etc. The reason for the gloom became clear: the skylight was painted over, the only light came from a half-dozen kerosene lamps hanging from the rafters and several candles on and around the easel. The room smelled strongly of paint, turpentine and canvas.
The walls of the long room were sloping (this being under the roof) and one side had unfinished paintings leaning against it. On the other four tiers of finished canvasses were hung for presentation. (From the bottom: a row of 7 along the bottom, then 6 and 4 in the middle, then another 7 near the roof.) The subjects were somewhat dark and hard to see, but seemed to be horrifying and gruesome in nature.
Holding pride of place in the middle of the finished canvasses was a landscape painting of a temple where some ceremony was taking place, with a large mountain in the background.