Moments of reflection, moments of change. Surprise, discomfort. Tenacious hope. Life-altering grief. Five stories by Elizabeth Bowen, Maryann D'Agincourt, W. Somerset Maugham, and Edith Wharton bring a full spectrum of human experience and emotion together in the second of Portmay Press's collections of art fiction. Each piece in this volume was chosen for the unique way in which the author paints with words and, whether from the perspective of the...

The effects of World War II resonate through the lives of two families, one American and one European, living outside of Boston. As Jenny grows up in the shadow of her parents' dark experiences in Trieste during the war, she is pulled to the haunting art and ironic gaze of her next-door neighbor Jonas, whose own father, preparing for deployment as an army medic, died before he was born. But when, the mysterious Eric Stram enters her life unexpectedly,...

This insightful collection of short stories takes the reader on a journey through a diverse array of lives and relationships, from a journalist finding new love after the death of her husband to a schoolgirl, shocked to discover her mother's secrets. D'Agincourt delves, deep into the emotional lives of her characters and sheds light on the mysteries of human decisions and the significance of art and music in our lives.

A scientist from Australia and a Nigerian-American art historian become connected by their shared interest in a 19th century race horse, one studying its remains, the other uncovering the history of the Black horsemen who were critical to its success.

Vashti believes that she cannot draw, but her art teacher's encouragement leads her to change her mind.

His ordered life thrown into disarray when he begins treating an unstable genius artist who has recently attacked a canvas at the National Gallery of Art, psychiatrist and art hobbyist Andrew Marlow struggles to understand the secret that torments the artist.

Danielle Cafferty and Michael Quinn, occasional partners in solving crime, are quickly drawn into the case of a painting reputed to come to life--and to bring death. They begin to make connections between that summer in Switzerland and this spring in Louisiana. Danni, the owner of an eccentric antiques shop, and Quinn, a private detective, have discovered that they have separate but complementary talents when it comes to investigating unusual situations....

"Set in the South of France, London, and Paris, a gorgeous, innocent mistress of a Russian oligarch gradually finds independence via her own efforts and through her friendship with the artist son of a world-renowned painter and his devoted muse/now restaurateur mother, reminiscent of Picasso and La Colombe D'or in St-Paul-de-Vence."-- Discovered on a freezing Moscow street by a Russian billionaire, Natasha Leonova lived for seven years under his...

Kim Lord is an avant-garde figure, feminist icon, and agent provocateur in the L.A. art scene. Her groundbreaking new exhibition Still Lives is comprised of self-portraits depicting herself as famous, murdered women--the Black Dahlia, Chandra Levy, Nicole Brown Simpson, among many others--and the works are as compelling as they are disturbing, implicating a culture that is too accustomed to violence against women. As the city's richest art patrons...

Rafe Khatchadorian's new year at middle school is starting to look depressingly like the old one, except that art class is going well--and when he joins the flag-football team and demonstrates some talent as a running-back, he discovers a way of dealing with his bullying nemesis and teammate, Miller the Killer.