Depth Perception: A Novel

"Lucky indeed is the man who can follow his passions," contemporary Scottish artist Robert McBride tells an interviewer, "but if he doesn't go full-tilt at them, he's failing in life."

Robert's main passions are oil painting and swimming. He excels at both. But either might turn his life upside down.

DEPTH PERCEPTION, set in Edinburgh, Oxford, London, Cornwall and the Scottish Highlands, takes you into the life, the art, the adventures and the imagination of a remarkable Scottish painter.

Who else but Robert McBride would announce at age 6 he'd become a great artist and be correct? Who else would swim naked in the Thames? Use art to tame a school bully? Leap off a train to court a beautiful stranger? Throw paint at a nobleman's bodyguards? Recite poetry to a mouse? Commune with the Loch Ness monster? Venture too close to a churning whirlpool? Dare to hide secrets and scandals in his paintings?

Impulsive and eccentric, Robert will lead you from North Sea oil platforms to Buckingham Palace, from historic Oxford colleges to the world's third-largest whirlpool, from lively Scottish country dances to the raging storms of the Atlantic.

Among the array of intriguing characters are art-loving policemen, a claustrophobic duke, an operatic florist, an avaricious landlord, and the witty eclectics known as the Boist'rous Oysters.

You'll recognize luminaries like George Bernard Shaw, Robert Burns, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Orwell and Mary, Queen of Scots.

But who is the mysterious, anonymous and unseen critic who stalks Robert McBride from town to town throughout Great Britain?

And why, at the peak of Robert's success, does he become Chalky Bob, a grubby chalk artist humbling himself on dirty city sidewalks?

And what is the one simple yet highly-significant question Robert asks all those who pose for his portraits? It's a question which few of us dare to confront. Will you decide to answer it?

Combining adventure, humor, romance and suspense - and rich with observations about life and art - DEPTH PERCEPTION is a thoughtful, lyrical and often exhilarating exploration of the world of oil painting and of one man's fascinating creative journey.

Award-winning author ERIC E. WALLACE, who lives in Eagle, Idaho, writes fiction, poetry and drama. His five literary novels are DEPTH PERCEPTION, HOVER POINT, MIND AFTER MIND, THE IMPROVISER and EMPEROR'S REACH. He's published three anthologies of his short stories: UNDERTOW, HOAR FROST and STONERISE. All of Eric's books are, of course, available on BookLocker.