Paint — now is the best of times

King Farouk ate 600 oysters a week and his grandfather, Khedive Ismail died in 1895 whilst attempting to down a magnum of champagne in one draught. Just the other day it was discovered Imelda Marcos left 2,700 pairs of shoes behind when she decamped with her equally well‐heeled husband. Such gluttony and waste help to make the world go round however much we despise the perpetrators and, although the Epistle to the Philippians is a fact of Christian joy, those who sell mulloway, fine wine, or tooled leather, prefer reading their sales ledger. It's all about disposable incomes which, however fragmented, coalesce to just one overall tangible figure up for grabs. How does the paintmaker currently fare in this time immemorial street fight?