Get up and Gumption. Her grandmother had been right. Irene had that, not all of her relatives did. Get up and gumption brought her the beach house she enjoyed. It wasn't the best stretch of the beach, the sand angled down to the waters edge a bit too sharply, but owning a beach house didn't necessarily require bathing in salt water. She enjoyed being the head of her own company, managing her own time, and moving more or less half way up in the big condo building that housed her apartment. There was always the climb to penthouse level, but owning the beach house had alleviated her need to keep ahead of the Joneses.
The Beach Painter had no get up and gumption, Irene could see that from a hundred paces, and a hundred paces was more or less the distance from which she viewed him. Until her friend Jayne suggested he paint her in the nude. A sort of get acquainted nudie portrait, which he refused to do because she was too skinny.