Almighty painter

Chapter 330 Athletics
The scroll unrolled, bringing with it a burst of floral fragrance.

When Gu Weijing received the express delivery, in addition to the Chinese painting scroll, the sponge-filled safe box also contained a small piece of black wood the size of a thumbnail.

There is a saying in the collecting world that paper lasts for a thousand years and silk lasts for eight hundred.

This means that paper collections can be passed down for thousands of years, but paintings made of silk, brocade and silk will decay after being passed down for 800 years.

Traditional Chinese painting rice paper has only two natural enemies: one is moisture and the other is insects.

In their calligraphy and painting shop, there are a total of three treasures passed down from their ancestors.

They are jade, gold and wood.

Jade is the set of bamboo pens that are as clear as jade and the jade seals that Grandpa has given to him.

The gold was the few small yellow croakers that helped their family go through many turmoils and the whole family did not starve to death during the most difficult time. They had all been spent in Gu Tongxiang's hands. Gu Weijing had only heard about it and had never seen it since he was born.

The last piece of wood is a wooden box made of three small leaf camphor trees.

Camphor wood can be used as medicine. It has the effects of warding off wind and cold, strengthening the heart and relieving spasms. It is also naturally capable of repelling insects and moths, preventing insects and ants from invading. Among them, the small-leaf camphor tree growing in the mountains of Badong, Hubei and Anhui is the most valuable. .

Legend has it that it can be separated from water and moisture, and precious paintings and calligraphy can be preserved for hundreds of years as if they were new.

Boxes made of small-leaf camphor are indispensable treasures in the houses of elegant nobles and big collectors. They are no cheaper than huanghuali and small-leaf red sandalwood.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, among the things passed down from ancestors, the most valuable thing at that time was not the dozen or so golden small yellow croakers, but the three old and heavy, thick carved boxes.

On the contrary, in modern times, the price of Cinnamomum camphora has not been skyrocketed. The tree species are now available for all ages. It is easy to mine and the price has gone down.

No matter how bad it is, buying [-] pieces of camphor sanitary balls for ten dollars on an online shopping platform, and buying two bags and getting one free will have the same effect.

Instead, those three big boxes just became a reminder of the ancestors.

According to elders, at that time, his wife and grandfather heard from colleagues that the ghost place in Southeast Asia was hot and humid, and there were many peach blossom miasma and diseases. Before leaving Beijing, their family was located in a section of Baishun Hutong on the west side of Dashilar. After entering the Sihe Yard for the second time, I brought back these three treasure boxes.

Every time his grandfather Gu Tongxiang looked at the three dark boxes under the bed, thought about their ancestral home at the root of the old imperial city, and calculated the house price, he felt like he was going to lose money.

Although the memories left by the Gu family on the wooden box are not very pleasant.

However, Gu Weijing and his cousin Gu Lin have learned to help their elders take care of and maintain various calligraphy and painting works of art since they were young.

The ancients said that the fragrance of ink is the fragrance of ink.

To be honest objectively, most inks, whether they are pine smoke ink, oil smoke ink, Hui ink or Jin ink, most of the inks smell bad, and some even have a pungent odor.

Those paintings that have been stored in camphor wood boxes will have a refreshing plant smell when they are taken out after being stored for a long time, which is full of ancient meaning and has quite a charm.

The scent of Ms. Tang Ning's "Hundred Flowers" was dyed using a similar method.

There are some slight differences too.

The 21st century may be the era when artists have the highest social status in history.

Ms. Downing is a great painter worth tens of millions of dollars.Third-class painters like Gu Weijing's ancestors were, to put it bluntly, middle- and lower-class literati who supported their families by painting for nobles at the Forbidden City Painting Academy.

Everyone plays at different levels.

When Gu Weijing received the "Hundred Flowers", he realized that the aroma on the scroll was not the common camphor wood smell. It was fresher and much longer.

That piece of wood is like a sponge with small holes all over it. It emits a smell that is sweet and pure, fragrant but not greasy, and rich in layers.

It smells like layers of flowers blown down by the wind in spring.

The old man played with the small piece of wood and studied it for a long time, and then carefully put the piece of wood back. He sighed with emotion. Mr. Cao's disciples really knew how to play and were really rich.

"Is there any fragrance added to it?" Gu Weijing guessed.

"Perfume? Huh, you're so old-fashioned. I'm just playing in a traditional style. If you use fragrance, you won't be embarrassed, and they will be embarrassed too!"

"Young man, you don't have enough experience. Do you think that you can be considered a literati painter if you can draw two strokes? Fengya, the most important thing is elegance. You, I still have a lot to learn from your grandfather!"

At that time, Gu Tongxiang took a look.

After demonstrating his authority as a grandfather, the old man explained to Gu Weijing in a conspicuous manner.

"If my guess is correct, this should be the legendary agarwood." He tapped the dark wood with his fingertips.

Agarwood is the holy product among agarwood.

Agarwood is a special fragrance formed when a tree is damaged by external forces and the fragrant wood secretes oil to wrap the wound.

It is divided into four types: raw knot, mature knot, falling off and insect leakage.

The latter is the most precious, and also the longest and sweetest. It is not like wood, but more similar to the fragrance of flowers.

Bugs are smart.

Between two agarwood trees on a piece of land, it will only bite the sweetest and most fragrant one. The bacteria on different agarwood trees, the acidic substances secreted by the bites of different groups of insects, and the final spices formed also have different aromas.

"Ya Shan Zhi" of the Qing Dynasty said: "Insect leakage, insect-eaten holes, there is not much fragrance, and the inside is powdery soil, which is called insect mouth powder. Those with belly flowers are valued for their black color. When matched with a beautiful woman, the fragrance Attacking people is like seeing hundreds of flowers."

One tael of Qinnan and ten taels of gold.

It takes 30 to [-] years for this small piece of pure black agarwood, which is not much bigger than a fingernail, to grow. This fragrant wood was one of the most precious woods in ancient times.

In modern times, it is different from the devalued camphor wood.

Authentic Qiongdao antique agarwood is sold by the gram, with prices ranging from 1000 yuan to 3000 yuan per gram on the auction market. Large pieces of agarwood have once fetched millions of dollars.

Using this kind of thing to prevent insect infestation is really a big deal.

"Isn't agarwood made from insects? Can it also prevent insects?" Gu Weijing was confused.

"It's very simple. It's probably because the bugs have come to bite the wood. When the bugs are full, they won't bite the paintings. It's like the anti-corrosion zinc blocks inlaid on the ocean-going ships in Yangon Port. Seawater corrodes the zinc blocks, but instead they won't bite the paintings. It will corrode the metal on the ship."

Gu Tongxiang glanced at his unaware grandson and made a conclusive judgment.

In fact, the old man is also talking nonsense.

He didn't know the specific use of this kind of agarwood. After all, it was too high-end. He had only read similar ancient books before and had been in the art circle for a longer time. He had heard about similar things. The specific situation was far from his society. The level is too far away, so it can only be said to be specious.

Gu Weijing vaguely felt that his grandfather was not reliable.

He specifically asked Professor Lin Tao for advice and learned that their grandfather and grandson were very similar to each other. They were both big and small dogs who imagined that the emperor would plow the land with a golden hoe.

The small piece of fragrant wood that came with the express delivery was given to him by Ms. Tangning.

The purpose is not the same as the zinc block of sacrificial anodization, which is used to prevent insects.

Instead, it was burned directly.

In ancient times, when princes and nobles invited celebrities to enjoy paintings and poems, or held art appreciation meetings, they would bathe and burn incense, and have beautiful geisha girls play the guzheng and pipa beside them.

Achieve the multi-level sensory unity of eyes, ears and nose.Only the heat of the flame can force out all the different levels of aroma in the wood.

When creating and designing this painting, a piece of fragrant wood was burned. Seeing the flowers blooming in front of my eyes, I felt drunk.

Even if you are a layman.

In order to see a painting, I burned a small piece of gold. If I were not drunk, I might have to force myself to convince myself that I was drunk.

This is not burning fragrant wood, it is burning genuine Money!
It's even more heroic than in "A Better Tomorrow" when Brother Chow Yun-fat lit up a cigarette with a Franklin dollar!

The literati of Eastern Xia pursued elegance to an extreme.

In today's top art exhibitions, some installation artists will add special aromatherapy systems when setting up the exhibition, using scent as a part of the art exhibition.

to be honest,
This seemingly trendy gameplay was left over from the aristocratic literati in the Wei, Jin, Tang and Song dynasties.

After all, Gu Weijing didn't understand the way the ancient ministers appreciated paintings, and when he learned where the small piece of agarwood came from, he burned it.

Gu Tongxiang pouted and muttered that this was too wasteful and coquettish, so he took the piece of fragrant wood away without ceremony.

Thousands of dollars!
Turning into beads seems like a waste of scraps.

The old man was going to find a chain and hang it on his wrist to show off to Old Man Wu.

He couldn't find such good stuff in his entire literary and art shop, and even if he had money, he couldn't buy it.

Humph.

I have to starve Old Man Wu to death!

Before Gu Weijing received the "Hundred Flowers" sent to him, it must have been appreciated by Tang Ning's artist friends in the fragrance.

The rice paper pages have been thoroughly fumigated by the smoke from the plants.

The scroll unfolded little by little. Gu Weijing did not burn the incense wood, but the flowers were still fragrant.

The quality of a work of art has something to do with the character of the owner of the work, but not that much.A corrupt official like Li Shen, who is said in urban legends to kill dozens of chickens and eat chicken tongue soup for every meal, could still write a great poem praising farmers like "Compassion for the Peasants" that has been passed down through the ages.

Tang Ning has become a little more mature as a person, and her painting is really good.

She was not a few years older than Gu Weijing when she painted this painting. It was already the work of a famous master. Every time she opened it, Gu Weijing was amazed.

The fragrance of flowers and woods are just the icing on the cake. The elegance and luxury are easy to imitate.

This kind of brushwork is truly wonderful.

On the branches and leaves of the plant, the brush strokes are round, gentle, strong and broad-minded, and the brush strokes always maintain a straight and straight center, achieving a round, strong and free artistic effect, expressing the vigorous vitality of this flowering tree that will never appear in the human world. incisively and vividly.

Ms. Tang Ning probably has calligraphy skills since she was a child.

Such an upright, vigorous and hard way of using the brush, with sharp points like an old monk using an ax to carve a monument, with sparks flying, is rarely seen in the hands of female painters, let alone a little girl in her twenties.

If a boy like Gu Weijing were to draw, he would not be able to draw as well as he does.

The colorful flowers on the flower trees, with a twist of the pen, show the delicacy of the women in the Jiangnan water town with flowing water, elegant and flying, strong and thin lines, and sublime.

The master's first-level calligraphy and painting skills are no worse than the master's knowledge card given to him by the system.

In terms of brushwork, he is still two ranks ahead of Gu Weijing.

Cao Xuan's biggest expectation for Gu Weijing is that he can win a small award at the Singapore Art Exhibition, including the Best Newcomer Award and the Best Creative Art Award.

After the turn of the millennium, the number of awards established by the organizing committee of the International Biennale has increased.

It’s hard for everyone to participate in a solo exhibition, but it’s boring to have three melons and two jujubes. There are as many as twenty or thirty awards, with the main one focusing on participation, and both rain and dew will be shared.

Of course, the awards at the Singapore Art Exhibition are absolutely unreliable.

Even if the rain and dew touch evenly, it will only touch the top and top dozen leaves of a lush tree, which is still extremely difficult for Gu Weijing.

Tang Ning directly won the No. 1 gold medal at the Magic City Art Exhibition where many famous artists participated, overshadowing a lot of senior painters in their 60s and [-]s.

This is not just about adding two kilograms of spices to the scroll, or her teacher is Cao Xuan's back door.

In fact, it is a good painting.

Ms. Tang Ning was willing to send the work to Gu Weijing for face-to-face copying, which was actually very impressive.

Qiongdao agarwood worth thousands of yuan per gram is just burned. It is not worth mentioning in the minds of such top artists. In terms of income ratio, it is not much more than ordinary people ordering mosquito coils.

But the original painting is really valuable.

In the past, Gu Weijing thought that it was only worth a Porsche 911 sports car. Now, under the background that Tang Ning's worth doubled at the Xiangjiang auction last month.

Considering the commemorative value of this "Hundred Flowers Picture".

The Porsche 911 sports car has been turned into a duplex apartment outside London's Financial Street.

Such a precious painting, when Ms. Tangning heard that he wanted to copy it, she sent it directly to Gu's calligraphy and painting shop.

To speculate in the dark, maybe if the female artist saved Gu Weijing and failed to preserve it, the painting would be damaged, and she would be unable to afford the huge debt and become a hard-working little puppet, at the mercy of her thoughts.

The most likely answer is that people don't care at all.

I just want to send you "Hundred Flowers" and tell you clearly.

People like you can't draw it even if you follow it.

Gu Weijing carefully hung the scroll on the hanging mirror wire hanging from the corner of the wall, and pondered it for a moment under the light.

Pull out a roll of rice paper and lay it out on the table.

Keep all kinds of Chinese painting pigments at hand.

In the past, Gu Weijing could not imitate even the superficial and essence of "Hundred Flowers" despite racking his brains.

Tonight, after returning from the botanical garden, he ran back to the Good Luck Orphanage because he felt it was time to give it another try.

What supports the height of a painting is the triangle of knowledge, technique, and emotion.

Professor Lin Tao has already taught you everything you need to know about painting flowers.

There is a huge gap in skills between the two.

But in the remaining aspect, Gu Weijing is not unattainable, even...

He is now confident that he can draw even better than Tang Ning.

(End of this chapter)