Almighty painter

Chapter 34 The Way of the Painter
"what's up?"

Gu Weijing walked to Katsuko Sakai.

The strange thing is that Sakai Tsunasho didn't follow his sister like a little tail this time.

He looked at his sister and Gu Weijing, and then at the black car beside him, with a strange expression on his face.

"I've heard about the murals. If you didn't paint so well, Gang Chang might have caused you a lot of trouble today."

Sakai Katsuko bowed to Gu Weijing.

"Gangchang, come here and apologize."

She waved to Sakai Tsunamasa who was behind her. Although Sakai Tsunamasa was a little reluctant, he still moved over step by step under her sister's stern gaze.

"Sorry, I didn't check the registration form carefully."

He said dejectedly.

"My father said that even Mr. Cao is full of praise for you today. It's a pity...I can only look at the photos."

She looked Gu Weijing up and down, her voice full of melancholy that she couldn't watch Gu Weijing arrange the paint and color the mural with her own eyes.

"Cough cough."

Sakai Katsuko wanted to say something, but was interrupted by a coughing sound.

"Shengzi, don't introduce me, who is this stranger?"

Under the opened glass of the Mercedes-Benz S65, came a cold voice.

Gu Weijing's eyes fell on the car on one side, a young man in his 20s, with a mustache and a pair of Ray-Ban&Ferrari series sunglasses with large lenses on his forehead.

The whole person of the young man is presented as a mix and match temperament between the old samurai in the Edo period and the pilot in the "Top Gun" movie flying the F-14.

Very artist style.

"Sorry, this is Mr. Gu Weijing. Mr. Gu, this is my senior Komatsu Taro, and the co-pilot is my mother. They flew from Osaka to Yangon to visit us."

Mrs. Sakai in the co-pilot seat is a blond beauty who looks very young and beautiful.

Gu Weijing recalled that when they first met, Shengzi had mentioned that her mother was Spanish.

"Hello, auntie, hello you."

He nodded towards the car.

Mrs. Sakai did not intend to get out of the car to meet Gu Weijing, she just nodded slightly through the glass, as a greeting.

"You are Gu Weijing? I heard that Professor Lin Tao is very optimistic about you."

Taro Komatsu pushed open the door and got out of the driver's seat.

He was tall and tall, slightly taller than the underage Gu Weijing by half a head.

Taro Komatsu stretched out his index finger and pushed the sunglasses to his forehead, his eyes squinted at Gu Weijing through the bottom of the frame.

He seems to have some understanding of Gu Weijing, and he is not the stranger he said.

"Senior Komatsu is a well-known cutting-edge painter in RB. Moreover, his father is the famous master of oil painting known as [Klimt who lives in Osaka]——Kenta Komatsu."

"Are you the son of the founder of Komatsu Gallery?"

Gu Weijing raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Komatsu Kenta is a very famous modern and contemporary Asian oil painting painter. His style of work is influenced by Pre-Raphaelites and Symbolism. He pays attention to asymmetric composition and patterned modeling, prefers the style of heavy color and line drawing, and likes to use golden The keynote and the color texture symbolizing the hidden mysticism enjoy a high reputation in the world.

More socially influential than Komatsu as a painter, he was also a very successful businessman.

He founded his own gallery brand [Komatsu Gallery].

It is also a family gallery, the gap between Gu's Painting and Calligraphy Shop and Komatsu Gallery is like the gap between the snack bar selling spicy noodles at the entrance of the campus and the world's top 7 like 11-[-].

In the fourth quarter of last year, Komatsu Gallery’s annual sales of contracted artists approached 10 billion yen, ranking fifth in RB and the largest gallery in Osaka.

When Taro Komatsu was still in school a few years ago, he followed his father, Mr. Komatsu, who is the chairman of the All-day Painting and Calligraphy Association, to visit Professor Sakai on New Year's Day in RB.

When he saw Sakai Katsuko for the first time, he froze for three seconds before recovering.

As the young master of the Matsumoto family, Komatsu Taro is not someone who has never seen a beautiful girl.

But at that time, in order to welcome RB's most important traditional festival of the year, Sakai Katsuko's slim figure was wrapped in old-fashioned dresses.In his eyes, he seemed to have an oriental innocence, a western charm, and a quiet temperament.

Taro Komatsu was immediately fascinated by the other party, and those passers-by in the tavern in the past suddenly became vulgar fans that he was not interested in.

She is like the kind of pure butterfly that will appear and fly away in every man's youth. Komatsu Taro dreams of catching this butterfly and making it his own private collection.

RB's upper class still maintains a relatively traditional marriage habit, and RB's legal age for marriage is .

Many girls from aristocratic families got engaged very early, became full-time wives even earlier after graduating from university, and even married first before going to university.

His father Kenta Komatsu was also very supportive of his son's decision.

For a great artist like Sakai Kasunari, being able to marry is also very beneficial to the interests of the Komatsu Gallery, which is much more respectable than hooking up with an actress on some TV station.

The only thing that makes Taro Komatsu a little discouraged is that.

After getting in touch with him, he realized that Katsuko Sakai was actually a very cold person, and she was neither distant nor warm in the face of his almost straightforward pursuit.

It seems that Shengzi is immersed in his own painting world and doesn't care about everything else.

Only when I talk about painting with the other party will I show interest.

This time he flew to Yangon with his "mother-in-law" Mrs. Sakai. During the few days of chatting, he was keenly aware that Shengzi frequently mentioned a local painter named Gu Weijing.

And every time the name was mentioned, her tone was full of enthusiasm, which made Taro Komatsu, who had already regarded Katsuko Sakai as his own, tasted a little bit.

"It looks a little too young. I heard that Master Lin Tao likes you very much and wants to accept you as an apprentice. Did you say when you will be apprenticed?"

Xiao Song looked at Gu Weijing.

Gu Weijing felt uncomfortable being looked at by the other party, but out of politeness, he still answered.

"Professor Lin Tao just said that when I apply for university, I can consider going to CAFA."

"It's just a student."

Komatsu shook his head disdainfully.

Students and apprentices are two different things. The former is just teaching, while the latter is passing on the mantle. Especially in Asia, the relationship between disciples is very intimate, like father and son on the road of art. The apprentice inherits the mantle, and the master tries his best to pave the way for you.

Even for ordinary painters who have already become famous, if they can catch up with Professor Lin Tao, it will be very beneficial to their development.

This is why Professor Lin Tao was so shocked when he learned that Mr. Cao wanted to take Gu as his apprentice.

If you are just a student,
Cao Xuan is now invited to be the dean and lifelong professor of the Department of Oriental Art at Hamburg University of the Arts. In theory, every student who applies for the Department of Oriental Art can say that he is a student of Mr. Cao.

But Mr. Cao has fewer than five apprentices in the true sense, and any one of them is a well-known artist.

"I thought it was something..."

Since the apprentice acceptance ceremony will not be held for the time being, Komatsu thinks that Professor Lin Tao is just casually saying that Gu Weijing will go to the Central Academy of Sciences.

"I don't know if Professor Lin Tao wants to encourage young people, or because his main business is more inclined to Chinese painting, and the requirements for sketching are relatively low. Is this your pen drawing?"

He took one of four pen drawings from the glove box in the car.

After Gu Weijing and the others finished the competition, several pen drawings were taken away by the staff, and it is not known how Komatsu Taro got these works.

"Perhaps the only thing worthy of praise is the skill with the pen, but it is only qualified. The craftsmanship is too strong, without any soul. It is just a little better than that sluggish Tanaka, and far worse than Miss Sakai. Let me see. Come on, being a soulless copier is worse than drawing badly."

In front of Gu Weijing, Taro Komatsu kneaded his painting into balls little by little, then tore it up and threw it away.

"That's Professor Lin's request. If it were in our home gallery, such pen drawings would have to be thrown into the trash can."

He said condescendingly.

Xiaosong is not afraid of offending Professor Lin Tao. In terms of artistic status, his father and Professor Lin Tao are almost the same.

But he also didn't want to offend the second disciple of Mr. Cao.

Their home gallery is known as the No. [-] in Osaka and No. [-] in RB.

But the sales for the whole year are just one or two high-quality paintings of Mr. Cao, not to mention that the profit of the gallery is an order of magnitude less than the sales.

Even Cao Lao's second-generation successors are almost all artists at the same level as his father.

During the conversation, knowing that Lin Tao probably did not intend to accept Gu Weijing as an apprentice in a short time, Komatsu Taro's attack on Gu Weijing became bold and naked.

At this time, inside the Mercedes-Benz.

"Komatsu-kun is a little rude."

Professor Kazushige Sakai, who had already gotten into the car, happened to see the scene of tearing up the painting. He shook his head quickly and wanted to push the door to get out of the car.

"Ten percent, let the children solve their own affairs, Komatsu Taro has a sense of propriety."

Mrs. Sakai shook her head.

She looks at her husband.

"One is the son of the chairman of the All-day Painting and Calligraphy Federation, the heir of Komatsu Gallery. The other is a young local painter in Yangon. What do you think?"

Her tone was meaningful.

"Isn't it too early? Shengzi is only 17 years old."

Sakai Kasunari was puzzled for a moment, and soon understood what his wife meant.

"It's getting late, don't tell me you can't see what that kid Xiaosong is thinking. And at the age of seventeen or eighteen, you should know what is the right age. Maybe that Gu Weijing does have some talent. But we are all studying art Everyone should know how difficult it is to turn talent into wealth."

Mrs. Sakai may not really have to choose Komatsu as her son-in-law.

But at least, in her opinion, Komatsu Taro is much better than Gu Weijing as Shengzi's friend.

Not to mention how much a strong marriage with Mr. Kenta Komatsu can help my daughter improve on the road of art.

Just talk about the two young people themselves.

Taro Komatsu is now a professional painter.

In his senior year, he successfully qualified for the Yokohama Art Triennial, and won the second prize in the amateur student group. He is one of the youngest winners in the past ten years.

Maybe it's because of his father's connections, but no matter what, an oil painting by Komatsu Taro can sell for [-] to [-] US dollars today.

What about Gu Weijing?

Can he sell a painting for a hundred dollars?

The gap between the two is like a seed still in the wilderness, and a sapling that has grown.

Mrs. Sakai, like Issei Sakai, studied fine arts. She is fully aware of how low the success rate in this industry is.

Maybe it takes a thousand seeds to grow into a tree.

Regardless of the country, regardless of the culture, when a woman becomes a mother, those careless thoughts in her mind will dissolve like cotton candy dropped into water.

When a girl was a girl, she might be moved to tears by the fairy tale about the princess who fell in love with the poor boy.

But as it concerns her own daughter, Mrs. Sakai only thinks about Prince A, Prince B, and Prince C...

This is not only a philistine, but also life.

Sakai Katsuko has also reached the age when she should understand what is a good match.

If you choose someone who is not worthy of you, especially in a social environment like RB where the power of the husband is supreme.In the future, her husband will be unknown and achieve nothing, and Mrs. Sakai feels that her daughter will not be happy either.

Gu Weijing was very angry when he saw his painting being torn to pieces.

Maybe Komatsu Taro is right. Mr. Cao also pointed out that his current work is just a simple copy, lacking knowledge and emotion, that is, too much craftsmanship.

But under normal circumstances, insulting the other party by demanding minors at the level of a professional painter... He is not a fool, and he can naturally hear the rudeness and arrogance in Komatsu's tone.

"I don't like your tone. But I understand your lack of tutoring, so it's okay, I forgive you."

Gu Weijing ignored the Sakai siblings on the side, turned around and walked like his own car.

"you--"

Taro Komatsu was angry. In the RB painting world, even if he didn't give him face, he would give his father face. No one dared to say that.

"I can't say that I'm wrong, who is this, Katsuko." He turned his head and wanted to grab Sakai Katsuko's hand, but was thrown away by the other party.

"I'm speaking for you, Katsuko, don't be angry." Taro Komatsu smiled.

Sakai Katsuko didn't smile.

She said in a cold tone: "I don't need you to speak for me like this, Senior Xiaosong. You are embarrassing me by doing this. There is no doubt that Mr. Gu was much more educated than you just now."

After finishing speaking, she ignored Komatsu Taro and her parents calling her name, and chased after Gu Weijing.

"Gu Weijing, Gu Weijing, wait a minute."

"Miss Sakai, what else do you need?" Gu Weijing said with a cold face.

He was called over by Katsuko Sakai, and then he suffered a bunch of insults inexplicably, which made his impression of the Sakai siblings a lot worse.

"Xiaosong... Forget it, let's not talk about it, I don't know what happened to him. There is no point in apologizing."

Sakai Katsuko handed over the 8-carat paper in her hand.

"I'll pay you a painting."

"This is?" Gu Weijing discovered that this was the pen drawing of the Shwedagon Pagoda that the other party drew the day before yesterday.

On it was the signature I just left and the words "To my friend Gu Weijing", as if I had just written it on in a hurry.

"You are the first time I have met a peer who can make me feel like an opponent. Keep it as a souvenir and try to see if you can beat me, although to be honest... I think it should be difficult."

Sakai Katsuko's tone was very sincere: "At least the current you are still a little inferior, and you haven't revealed your way in your writing."

"road?"

Gu Weijing knew that this was not the usual mystification in RB culture.

It's not just Cao Lao who mentioned skills, knowledge, and emotions.His grandfather also told him a similar theory, but every time it was vague and not very clear.

It should already be the domain of professional painters to express something other than pure skill in painting.

"That is the soul of painting, and also the foundation of the school. People like you and I have to go our own way after all. Gu Weijing, I hope you won't be left too far behind by me."

Sakai Katsuko blinked, she turned around, waved at Gu Weijing, and walked in the direction of a Mercedes.

A new panel appeared in front of Gu Weijing.

[Serial Mission: First Look - The Way of Career (1/3)]

[Current task content: upgrade any skill to lv.4 (professional painter)]

[Current task reward: George Berriman's "Anatomy of the Human Body"]

[You have obtained the chain mission, after completing each part of the chain mission, you will get the corresponding reward! 】

(End of this chapter)