Colors of the Immortal Palette is a story that you can tell was written by a veteran writer. As literature it's excellent, and pretty fine as a story as well. The protagonist is a model for famous painters, but she'd like to break into painting and be taken seriously as an artist. The story indicates that a lot of models would like that. But the art world does not take women seriously, even less so models who pose nude. An extra dollop of intersectional prejudice is layered on as our protagonist has Japanese ancestry and is named Mariko. Exotic but not serious, in Paris or Chicago.
The speculative element here is a "vampire" story. Here vampires don't want to be called vampires, and they do not bite or drink blood--they take a slice of life from their victims/proteges by more direct and spiritual means. This world is interesting in that immortals are "out"--they do not hide their nature, and at least from the perspective of the story it isn't disruptive. Mariko asks her immortal painter to "turn" her, which he does, giving her time to perfect her art but also to weary of life as he has. Very beautiful.
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