A month already that I had been working on this canvas. I had no one to blame but myself. I—the impressionist, the fauvist, the color enthusiast—had challenged myself: “I bet you’re not capable of painting realistically.” “Well, game on, I can do it,” my alter ego had replied, always loving a challenge. So, I got to work. I had decided to paint a portrait of a woman reading. To do this, I asked Sophie, one of my childhood friends and neighbors, to pose for me. * Tiny and cute, a brunette with azure eyes, Sophie is always dressed to the nines; her cheerful and playful nature charms more than a few... What I appreciate most about her is her energy, so much so that when we were kids, I dubbed her “Jack-in-the-Box”—which earned me, more than once, the painful red imprint of her hand on my cheek. Yes, between her and me, it’s a lovely story that goes back to early childhood. We’ve always been very close and see each other often; I can’t go to the market without running into her, as she ru...