Aurélie

Chapter Thirty One

When Aurélie reached the institute there were already a few people looking around the main gallery. Most of them were students with friends, and there were a smattering of tourists too who had seen the exhibition advertised on the subway and decided to come over and look at some of the fresh talent that was been nurtured and produced in Paris under the tutelage of some of the world's most forward-thinking and experimental artists. Seb was standing in the corner, leaning against a small desk with some paperwork and a coffee cup on it. He was staring into space and strumming his fingers on the wooden desk. He clocked Aurélie walking towards him and waved his hand in greeting, a smile cracking across his face. He pushed his hair back from his face. 

"Morning Relie" he said when she reached him. 

"Morning Seb" she reached up and greeted him by kissing both cheeks. He cleared his throat "I'm glad to see you've decided to come and check out the exhibition." 

"Yes, I wanted to get out of the house and Lena reminded me this was on. I guess you didn't say anything to her about last night?" 

"No. Believe it or not but I'm not one for idle gossip. It's your business and I have not intention of broadcasting your news. As much as it pains me." He looked at her cautiously and then looked away, pretending to scan the room. 

"Is all of this work yours?" Aurélie asked, jerking her head in the direction of the rest of the room. 

"Yes, this central gallery is all of my work, and then my peers have their work on display in the six rooms that lead off this one. It's our summer exhibition so it's all the work from our final year in one accumulated display." He explained.

"Do you want me to show you around?" Seb offered. 

"Sure, that'd be nice" Aurélie smiled at Seb, as they started to walk around the perimeter of the vast room. For once he had made an effort and was looking smart. Or at least he was looking smarter than usual which maybe wasn't that hard. He had on brown corduroy trousers tucked into darker brown biker boots which were laced up. He had on a white shirt which had a thin line of blue running through it and it was open at the collar. He'd managed to style his hair back from his face, but even now he kept running his hand through his hair and pushing over to one side. 

He seemed fairly nervous which Aurélie put down to having his work open to the open to the public for the first time. A lot of people don't often realise the artist is in the room when they observe paintings in galleries and it can sometimes lead to awkward encounters, especially if there is a clash of tastes. Aurélie hoped no-one had been rude about Seb's work so far. She didn't think they would be judging by the murmurs of appreciation she could hear as she walked over to hear, catching snippets of other people's conversations.

Each painting was at least five by seven foot. Huge canvases suspended by neat metal ropes against stark white walls with small plaques next to them in French and English giving a background to Seb's collection and the name of each painting. Most of them were done in acrylic paint, layers upon layers of paint built up to create depth and sharp edges, some had linen or other segments of material matted into the paintwork to add textures. 

The colours were vibrant and striking, the more you looked at the paintings the more you saw movement in his work and emotions were depicted by the furious brush strokes and splatterings of paint. 

"Wow, Seb these are amazing! There's so much force and energy in each one. It must be exhausting working on canvases this big." Aurélie was genuinely impressed. For some reason she had assumed Seb's artwork would be abstract installations, and not to say that these weren't abstract, they certainly were, but they were more in line with what you would expect to see at the Tate Modern rather than a David Blaine glass box stunt. He must have spent hours on these canvases and his passion shine through in each one. Aurélie was still gazing up at a particular painting "flotsam" that she didn't notice that Seb wasn't looking at his art work, he was looking at her, looking at his work, and gauging her reaction. His eyes lit up when she said how much she loved them.