The Versatile Master Artist-Chapter 82 - 74: Hundred Flowers Painting

"Elder Cao said that this painting hasn’t reached the threshold for the professional group at the art exhibition yet."

Professor Lin Tao’s WeChat reply was insightful: "The Master usually doesn’t like to praise people. You can ponder the old man’s meaning yourself."

Hasn’t reached the threshold for the professional group at the art exhibition?

Gu Weijing looked at the new message on his phone, trying to grasp the underlying meaning from the old man.

"So, it means it has reached the level of the ordinary student group."

It was pretty much as I estimated.

His original foundation was better than many local art students from the art academy,

The lv.4 Tier One Professional on the system panel should be considered average among professional painters but extremely excellent among art students.

Elder Cao should be quite pleased with his progress.

"Don’t be too proud. This is your junior sister Tang Ning’s painting ’Hundred Flowers Painting’ when she was twenty-two, also Elder Cao’s assigned next course task for you."

Professor Lin Tao sent another message.

It was a news release from the official website of the Shanghai International Art Biennale from a long time ago.

[Chinese painting master Cao Xuan’s last disciple Tang Ning’s ’Hundred Flowers Painting’ won the gold medal at the Shanghai International Art Biennale, setting a record for the youngest winner]

This news release from the Shanghai official media.

The attached picture showed a girl in her twenties wearing a beige coat, standing among several Shanghai government officials and committee members.

She held a golden trophy in her hand, with a much younger-looking Elder Cao on the left, and behind her was a four-feet-open Chinese painting.

The news release’s photo was unclear, but the link provided a portal to the exhibition’s official sub-catalog.

Gu Weijing searched the concurrent catalog for a moment and found Tang Ning’s ’Hundred Flowers Painting’ at the top of the electronic catalog.

"This is pure flaunting of skill."

The first instant he saw the electronic catalog, Gu Weijing dismissed the idea that this now top-tier middle generation female artist from Dongxia, Lady Tang Ning, relied on the face given by judges due to Elder Cao’s last disciple’s title to win the award.

The whole painting’s theme was a flower tree,

The branches were colorful, full of various flowers, vibrant and colorful.

The painting was titled ’Hundred Flowers Painting’—although not exactly a hundred kinds of flowers were there, there were indeed about fifty to sixty kinds.

"It’s really impressive."

Gu Weijing admired.

In oil paintings, once you learn one floral, you’ve essentially learned them all, perhaps only focusing on light and dark variation at most.

However, Chinese painting florals are different.

Just daylilies, irises, crabapples, magnolias, peonies, morning glories, hollyhocks, peach blossoms, daffodils, lilies, wisteria... there are dozens of corresponding painting techniques.

This ’Hundred Flowers Painting’ ingeniously managed to have dozens of painting techniques and artistic conceptions of flowers bloom on the same flower tree.

The orchid shows a majestic aura, plum blossoms exhibit pride, lotus flowers are like water lilies... Gu Weijing wasn’t a Chinese painting appraisal master but could at least see this had the stature of a Name Family.

Just these dozens of floral postures deserve the gold medal.

"Your next coursework is to imitate this painting, study and learn each floral painting technique. This painting itself is an excellent learning material for Chinese painting. I will teach you a floral painting technique every week, starting this week with orchids."

Professor Lin Tao wanted to officially start tutoring, and Gu Weijing had no reason to object.

"Oh, and I’ve contacted Junior Sister Tang Ning in the UK. Recently, an insurance company will reach out to confirm delivery with you."

Gu Weijing was taken aback.

He guessed the answer in his heart but was still somewhat incredulous.

"Delivery of what?"

"Naturally, it’s the ’Hundred Flowers Painting.’ To copy, you need to copy the authentic piece. Since your family runs a gallery, I don’t need to tell you how to maintain paintings. This painting is only lent to you, don’t damage it."

Professor Lin Tao’s tone was very calm, as if this was something trivial.

In the painting field, an original masterpiece, like a profound martial arts manual.

Even established painters often go to museums to copy works.

However, with people coming and going in museums, especially famous paintings, it’s hard to find time to calmly appreciate, let alone set up an easel to copy.

A few years ago, there was a major artist wanting to ease the process of copying the treasure of Prado Museum, ’Palace Maid.’

He went through various connections, eventually pleading all the way to the current King Felipe VI of Spain for a half-day copy authorization.

Today’s electronic technology is very advanced,

Even so,

the difference between electronic photos and a Name Family’s original piece for professional art practitioners is significant.

The effect of observing the original for ten minutes might far exceed staring at an electronic catalog all day.

The play of light from different angles, the grainy texture of the paper, the brushstroke feel... originals are originals, photos are photos.

Art learning is an expensive field, and painting supplies and paper only account for a small part of the art student’s learning cost. Various imitations are the actual big cost.

Essentially, top private art schools have, since middle school, spent nearly half of class time organizing students to travel Europe and copy master’s originals in major museums.

Even international schools like Gu Weijing’s offered summer or winter camps at various famous museums each holiday.

Including round-trip hotel tickets, visas, local guides, costing about eight thousand to ten thousand dollars a month.

For Gu Weijing’s family, it was quite expensive.

But he never expected he’d have the fortune to copy ’Hundred Flowers Painting’s’ original, and it was entrusted to him directly for complete freedom in copying.

This is, after all, the gold medal work of the Shanghai Art Exhibition Biennale.

Though not Lady Tang Ning’s matured work post thirty, it is worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Being directly entrusted for hands-on observation and learning is the supreme trust and love.

"Thank you."

"Thank Elder Cao, it’s his decision. Junior Sister Tang Ning is the one with the best painting foundation among our peers. Though I always assumed the bet was a joke, if you could capture even a fifth of its spirit in the upcoming months, not to mention winning, you might just have a chance to join an international art exhibition."

...

As Forrest Gump said, life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get next.

The care from elders is like a warm cup of hot cocoa, but there are also things that make Gu Weijing feel like something is stuck in his throat, like a piece of shit that won’t go up or down.

His online store received a malicious negative review.

Three days ago, Gu Weijing suddenly noticed on his virtual panel a random negative review.

Opening the website, he discovered the recent order on Detective Cat’s online store had a big [BAD] review.

Amidst a line of positive reviews, it stood out like a blot of ink on white paper.

Painters frequently encounter buyer’s negative reviews.

After all, art is an inherently subjective matter.

Tastes are personal, and many people also think Picasso’s works are ugly.

But Gu Weijing still remembered this person’s order, displaying a blue character illustration, which honestly didn’t have any technical content, almost eliminating the possibility of the drawing being bad.

He initially thought he encountered a customer trying to use negative reviews to blackmail a free painting from the artist.

It’s a long-standing issue,

customers nitpicking post-completion to ask for discounts, a habit some difficult customers had since Medieval Europe.

Currently, Gu Weijing still had tasks to complete, with a system side-quest demanding a 95% positive rate, meaning only one non-positive review could occur in twenty orders.

Very close to completing his task,

he did not want any complications just now.

Gu Weijing immediately reached out to the buyer, hoping to offer revisions or a full refund with the only request that the buyer cancels the negative review.

Eventually, the previously accommodating gentleman at submission mysteriously became very adamant.

A few minutes later, a lengthy review appeared in his transaction history.

"Three hundred dollars for an expensive pile of dog shit."—this was the order review’s title.

He clicked into the review, discovering the buyer’s tone was filled with animosity.

The buyer did not detail what was wrong, instead, he continuously compared his artwork unfavorably with another shop named "Cheap but not bad" selling blue character artworks.

For blue character artwork, frankly, if you can draw a circle, you can draw it, with minimal variation.

Seeing this,

Gu Weijing understood,

he seemed to have encountered a competitor.