h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On October 15th 1999 my mother died very suddenly which escalated a number of events which were not meant to happen so soon.
One major event was the decision to sell the family house, which was, by then, unoccupied.
My brother and I struggled through 4 generations worth of stuff to sort it into stuff for the tip/bin, stuff for the charity shops, stuff for car boot sales and stuff to keep. The goal posts have been moved several times since then.
Amongst the 'stuff to keep' was a suitcase full of books (oldest being 18thC) and a paper (homemade) portfolio containing some paintings I recognised from childhood. They caught my imagination then and I remember asking about them but no one gave me an explanation of what they were or why they were there. They were probably put away with haste as was everything the 'adults' had no words to explain to young minds. Just as my great-aunts were said to be suffering from a 'bad leg' and died from the same when I know now they died of cancer. Important to know when you think about it - especially breast cancer in the family for a female descendant.
I digress - I took the paintings home and was troubled about them for a while. In fact there was so much 'bad luck' in my house for the next few months that I blamed it on the paintings - our two beautiful kittens both died violent deaths and other horrible things happened which detracted from anything good at the time. I consulted a white witch who gave good advice to avert the bad luck. She also took in the paintings and pronounced that she could get nothing from them in terms of good or evil, which was reassuring.
So I addressed the situation and set off to research what I had via whatever means available.