Renato, the Painter: An Account of His Youth & His 70th Year in His Own Words

In his own mind Renato Stillamare may be the best painter of his generation

at least, he doesn’t know anyone better

but his canvasses aren’t in demand, and haven’t been since his last show at a Newbury Street gallery twenty-five years ago. Now 70, and retired from teaching at Copley College of Art, Renato has retreated to his Boston studio where he is defiantly painting, painting, painting, determined to be rediscovered. Renato is a lusty, large-hearted, smart, opinionated, and occasionally intemperate man whose children (including a daughter by his accidental mistress) are all grown up and dispersed, whose best friend (whom he misses more than anyone) died years before, and whose maddening wife (the love of his life) lives in a condo on the opposite bank of the Charles. But Renato’s life is about become much more complicated when the jewelry-pierced daughter of a former student shows up at his studio with her little four-year-old boy in tow. A great comic novel ensues.