‘How was it? Did you have a lovely relaxing afternoon?’ said Professor Lavender.
‘Well, I’m not stressed out any more,’ said Uncle Harry. ‘The afternoon certainly did the trick in distracting me from the importance of perfection, that’s for sure! Thanks to Ugenia, maybe it’s time I started looking at my tomato-sauce recipe a bit differently. It’s almost perfect, rather than not quite right!’
After Ugenia and Uncle Harry told her parents about their afternoon adventure, Ugenia got another surprise when she was led up to her bedroom – her parents had been doing a bit of painting themselves and had painted her room electric blue with a big rainbow stripe.
‘Exceptional!’ said Ugenia gratefully. ‘Much better than boring beige!’
A week later Ugenia and Uncle Harry were invited to The White Box gallery to a new exhibition where a famous artist was going to be unveiling his new painting. As they walked into the building, which was heaving with people, Mr Poplin was standing in front of a large red curtain.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he announced. ‘May I have your attention. It gives me great pleasure to introduce a new Russian artist – a total genius. Here is his first masterpiece.’ And, pulling back the red curtain, Mr Poplin revealed a large painting of a humongous squiggly red circle with a big yellow splat in the middle!
‘So what do you think, Miss Ugenia Lavender . . . could anybody paint such perfection in five minutes?’ laughed Mr Poplin.
Ugenia stared at the humongous red circle with the yellow splat in the middle.
‘Well, not just anybody,’ said Ugenia with a bemused, puzzling smile.
Ugenia Lavender Page 5
