Michel made a sour face as soon as she held it up to his nose. As someone with a slightly sensitive nose, he had smelled plenty of horrid things in his life growing up as a poorer boy in some questionable part of Paris. Something that made him put effort into always smelling decent himself now that he lived elsewhere. However, that was something he really wouldn't want near his nose again any time soon. The thought of anyone being careless enough to drink it was baffling to him. It wasn't even close to a good wine.
He took some mental notes as he watched her take his paint brush to the weird liquid. While it wasn't something he was certain he was going to try when he woke up that morning, he always did take well to learning new things. Even if he was doomed to be horrendously poor at it, he would at least have the basics written down in his mind. He carefully took the brush back from her, nodding as he did.
A still life was not his ideal starting point, but he supposed that there wasn't really any other good starting points for a beginner. Having never painted before, though, he had no idea where to start. He looked at the still life, tilting his head to the side. Eventually he just decided to start with the object in front. Finding the appropriate color was the easy part. However, judging the right amount was not so easy. He simply haphazardly picked some of the paint up with his brush and put the blob-ish beginnings of the object someone that seemed semi-appropriate on the canvas. Which wasn't entirely appropriate at all, but he figured he could work from there.