Almighty painter

Chapter 722: The Third Exhibition Painting (Part )
Gu Weijing was late for this year's Singapore Biennale, partly because he had to finish various complicated matters at home, and partly because he was waiting for the painting to dry.

Even without drying agent.

Paint thinner made from raw linseed oil will allow the surface to dry basically within 3 to 4 days.

This is a dark Impressionist work, composed mainly of blue, black, and raw ochre brushstrokes, which, because they contain soluble metallic elements, dry faster than yellow and orange aromatic compound pigments.

Now ten days have passed.

It is basically dried to the point where it can be transported.

Unless there is no other choice, Gu Weijing doesn't like to roll up the painting and put it in a scroll.

The pigment of oil painting is thicker. Compared with Chinese painting, its brushstrokes and colors are more like building blocks piled up on the surface of the canvas, rather than dissolved into the paper fibers.

Even if the painting is not rolled very tightly, it will more or less cause internal compression and deformation of the "volume" of the brushstrokes.

Paints with drying agents added are more likely to crack.

Gu Weijing once again used his old classmate Gu's secret skill of sending paintings - a large cardboard box, a cushioning sponge, and transparent super glue.

He even specially dug out a custom-made picture frame with an acrylic cover on the surface from his home warehouse... This thing is quite rare on the market.

Even with the best and most transparent glass, when light enters the glass from the air and then exits from the other side of the glass, the light path will be slightly refracted as the medium changes, not to mention the problem of reflection.

After adding the glass cover, the color "magic" that the painter originally gave to the work will be affected.

It may be a minor impact, but it will still make people feel unrefined.

People go to art galleries or go to big galleries like PACE, Lisson, CDX, and Mesch to buy paintings.

They usually find that all oil paintings and watercolor works of art are directly exposed to the air. If you sneeze or accidentally spit out bubble gum, they can get all over someone's face and bankrupt your wallet.

The Mona Lisa is encased in a bulletproof case because she is so famous.

Sulfuric acid, stones, red paint, cakes, cola... Every few years, a tourist would suddenly jump out of the ground and rush up to throw things at it.

Normally.

In most serious galleries, even an expensive work worth one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand dollars, or even an authentic work of Monet or Picasso worth one or two million dollars, will be sold for a small fortune.

They might be placed in a special VIP showroom, visible only to big customers, but they certainly wouldn't have extra covers or anything like that.

Doing this will make those picky customers who like to nitpick laugh.

Fortunately.

They don't run a serious art gallery.

Most of the main customers who come to small shops like Gu's Calligraphy and Painting Shop to buy paintings are not serious collectors.

People don't buy a painting with the intention of holding it for many years and multiplying its value several times over; they simply hang it in the living room for fun.

During the years when Mr. Gu studied the skills of micro-business, he thought about what customers thought, felt what customers felt, and had the entrepreneurial spirit to order a large number of these picture frames.

Pay an extra 30000 Kyats to upgrade to a "deluxe" picture frame with an acrylic cover.

Pay an extra 60000 Kyats to upgrade to a "deluxe" frame with a tempered glass cover.

Let’s not talk about whether it is particular or not.

At least it's tough.

Hang it at home to prevent the neighbor's naughty kids from secretly adding a mustache to the beauty picture, or smearing snot on it when no one is paying attention.

This time, Gu Weijing brought the painting across the ocean, and the old man Gu's family heirloom still played a good role with its proven practical effect.

Gu Weijing opened the outer packaging and found that the painting inside was well protected, without any friction, cracks or damage, so he nodded.

Awang seemed to have found something interesting.

He came closer with his nose pouting.

"This is not a toy. Go, you've eaten and walked around. Do you want to take a nap?" Gu Weijing stretched out his hand and scratched the tabby cat's neck.

"I have something to do later in the evening. There's a social dinner."

I don’t know if Awang understood it.

It opened its mouth slightly, yawned lazily, and glanced at its owner Xiao Guzi with a look that said, "Baby! Remember to bring back the lobster." It was surprisingly obedient and jumped onto the small sofa on the side, kicking its hands and going to sleep.

Gu Weijing sat on a chair on the other side.

He stared at the work not far away quietly.

Gu Weijing on the chair in the room. Looking at Gu Weijing on the chair in the painting, there is an amazing beauty.

This kind of beauty does not come from self-pity and self-admiration, but from the surge of emotions in the heart that are both familiar and unfamiliar.

Gu Weijing was extremely familiar with this painting.

He should be familiar with it.

He painted everything on the canvas himself. Every stroke and every painting was the result of his countless thoughts during the last few unforgettable long nights in his eighteen years in Yangon.

He could still easily recall how he put the finishing touches on it with his brush in Haoge's studio.

Then he threw the paintbrush aside in exhaustion.

He sat against the wall, silently looking at the easel on the teak floor, like a warrior before a decisive battle, waiting to feel the first rays of morning sun shining on his face.

Almost two weeks have passed.

It still looks so familiar as if it happened just a second ago.

The ultimate painting is not creation.

The ultimate painting is not the crystallization of color, line and structure, nor is it the combination of thinking and creativity.

The ultimate painting is the natural flow of emotions.

The ultimate painting is to infinitely condense your huge sensory body into a small paintbrush, and to burn all your thoughts, all your consciousness, and all your soul for the ultimate reward.

The article is made by nature, and it is occasionally obtained.

The iceberg carrying the aesthetic concept floats eternally in the deepest part of the lonely dark room. It is not stained by dust, is crystal clear and does not emit light by itself.

It sleeps in the darkness, and occasionally, occasionally, a few rays of fire shine from the human world, filling the room with light.

The brushstrokes burned on the canvas.

Emotions are engraved with lines like solidified flames, flashing with an aesthetic light that is as solid and indestructible as engraved precious metals.

Gu Weijing felt this painting was extremely unfamiliar.

He naturally felt strange.

This painting has gone beyond the limits of his current techniques.

The intricate and endlessly twisting brushstrokes in the painting are the touching emotions that only the master's magical hands can depict.

At the moment when the little candle of the Muse's blessing is burning.

Gu Weijing once saw the magnificent scene within the threshold - the free expression of myriad emotions with lawlessness as law and infinity as limitation.

It can be used to paint small things in a big way.

Draw how a tiny drop of water on the crest of a raging wave drips down from the water.

You can also use small to draw big.

Relying on a ray of moonlight outside the window, a glance under the moonlight, and a little bit of lead-colored frost on the tip of the pen, you can express the young man's rich emotions that meander across 48,000 miles vividly and vividly.

pity.

That was just something that Gu Weijing "borrowed". He did not cross the threshold and walk in through the main door with dignity. Instead, he chiseled open the wall and stole the light from the neighbor's house.

After the candle goes out.

The stingy neighbor took a rag and blocked the hole in the wall.

Perhaps the blockage is not as solid as the original bricks, wood and stones. Once you have truly experienced the feeling of reaching the first level of a master with the power of your own brush, you will definitely have new and different feelings when you pick up the brush again.

But before Gu Weijing can rely on his own efforts to break through the barrier again, it will still require a long period of accumulation and sedimentation.

Gu Weijing felt that this painting was unfamiliar. Not only that, in a short period of time, it was difficult for his penmanship to reach the same level of brushwork as this painting.

It is also because the mood of painting is very difficult to reproduce again.

He once painted more than twenty paintings of "Good Luck Orphanage in the Sunlight" in a row. He would not dare to say that each painting showed improvement, but the overall trend was that the paintings got better and better.

The more you draw, the more familiar you become, and the fewer mistakes you will make.

This painting doesn't work.

The biggest difference between writing well and feeling something is this:

The feelings in the heart are the waves and ripples of emotions reflected on the surface of the painting, just like the shadow of the bright moon in the teacup.

The bright moon rises every day.

As long as there are no clouds, the shadow will always come as promised.

As long as the emotion is brewing.

It is relatively easy to reproduce works that are inspired by your heart, and you can draw them again and again.

The wonderful writing is the permanent lines engraved on the paper after the burning emotions.

It is no longer the reflection of the bright moon, but a meteor with a long smoke tail falling from the sky and onto the canvas.

It is naturally unique.

One day, if Gu Weijing’s oil painting skills can reach the first level of master again, or even higher, the second level of master, or the third level of master.

He picked up the pen again and copied the painting.

He may be able to repair the omissions and imperfections in the brushwork on the painting, but it is difficult for him to depict the emotions and feelings at that time.

The young man's hearty laugh at his fate, the swan's noble dance as it dies.

A desperate yet free and easy mood.

All these things are already impossible to replicate.

The ambition of a young man is like the fruits on the branches in early July.

The sun is shining and the fruits are green.

It has both the layers of heat from midsummer and the immaturity and tenderness of autumn.

After the autumn rain, the fruits turn from green to red and the garden is filled with the fragrance of fruit.

As he matures, he has lost that reckless "willfulness".

This is not a bad thing.

This is growing up.

Thinking back, the scene where he got out of the taxi alone, holding Awang and walked into the Xihe Guild Hall with great courage, was only about ten days ago.

But to Gu Weijing, it all seemed so unfamiliar as if it had happened in his previous life.

Fortunately.

When a boy really grows up and becomes a man who has experienced the ups and downs of life.

Although the youthful look with "flames" coming out of the forehead and eyebrows and making the surrounding area hot is no longer there.

But after all, he was someone who once held a shooting star in his arms.

Some things never change.

When some things burn, what remains is not pale ashes, but solid philosopher's gold.

Some flames, after being lit, will not go out, but will gradually solidify and become restrained. They are no longer so hot that people cannot touch them, but have a warm smell like sunshine.

People outside the painting and people inside the painting.

They all have a similar crystal look.

Gu Weijing stared at the painting "Human Noise" for a moment, then lowered his head, took out his mobile phone, and selected the contact with the note "(Curatorial Assistant) Ms. Bonnie Rampling".

Their last chat message was sent earlier today, just after they arrived at the airport.

The other party told himself.

Because he was late, he had to go to the organizing committee's office himself to get the guest ID card and schedule.

As early as two weeks ago.

Just after Gu Weijing came out of the Xihe Guild Hall, he contacted the other party and asked if he could submit an extra drawing to the booth of this year's Biennale, and sent her the photo of "Human Noise".

Ms. Rampling initially said she could help ask, but later, somehow, he could sense that her attitude had turned cold, and she simply said that the submission deadline for the exhibition had passed, so no one could submit again.

This is the truth.

That's not true either.

The truth is, the submission deadline for the exhibition has indeed passed.

The untrue side is that it is obviously not true, as she said, that no one can submit again.

Katsuko Sakai's painting "Quiet, Empty, Mysterious" with Koko as the model was intended to be the second painting to be exhibited at the exhibition, but the submission date had obviously passed.

Miss Sakai didn't think it was a big deal.

She also told herself that in this kind of art exhibition, the curator has great power and exhibitors have great flexibility.

“If you think you have created a better work before the exhibition begins, just submit it to the organizing committee. If the organizing committee does not accept it, it will be a loss for the organizing committee.”

At that time, Ms. Shengzi's tone did not seem to worry at all about the possibility that the organizing committee would not accept her proposal.

And the obvious thing is.

Katsuko Sakai is within the "elastic" range, but he himself is outside the "elastic" range.

Even if you get a clear rejection.

Gu Weijing still brought the painting "Human Noise" to Singapore. He painted the work he was most satisfied with for the exhibition, but had no way to bring it to the exhibition.

After all.

I feel regretful in my heart.

Gu Weijing also tried to follow Lao Yang's path.

But in the car, Lao Yang kept telling me to be more careful, stay out of the spotlight, and do less and make fewer mistakes.

Mr. Cao didn't see me either.

He clearly felt that there was something else behind Lao Yang's words, his expression was a bit complicated, and even his words were very subtle.

Gu Weijing felt that there was an undercurrent surging that he was not aware of.

He gave up the idea.

She treated him to Chinese mitten crab and steamed fish head, and even said she would take him to meet Miss Elena in the evening!

Interesting enough.

Gu Weijing had better not speak up, as Lao Yang would feel awkward being caught in the middle.

Replace him with the old him.

When you encounter something like this and run into obstacles everywhere, you just give up.

People who come from poor areas have an especially strong and sensitive sense of self-esteem.

He would be afraid of being criticized and ridiculed for violating the social rules between people.

When Mrs. Sakai came to Fitz International School to open an advanced class, Mona would go to the teacher's office on her own and privately strive for and seek an opportunity to enter the advanced class.

Such a thing.

Given Gu Weijing's sensitive heart, he would definitely be embarrassed to do that.

just now.

However, Gu Weijing still wanted to give it a try to see if he could turn it into his "third exhibition painting".

If the organizing committee does not give anyone the space to change or add exhibited artworks.

Then there is nothing to say.

Gu Weijing fully accepted it.

Rules are rules, and they are the same for everyone, and that's fairness.

But if the rule is that the exhibition qualifications for this year are entirely selected by the curator's personal subjective ideas, there is a lot of flexibility.

Then Gu Weijing thought that he should give it a try.

Even if I don't rely on the relationship with Lao Yang or Ms. Sakai, I can rely solely on myself and the charm of the artwork itself.

Let the artwork speak for itself.

If the answer is still "no".

There's nothing much to say about that.

“Whether you have regrets or not does not depend on whether you have won the award, but on whether you have tried your best. If you have done so, then... no matter what the result is, you have no regrets.”

These are Ms. Sakai’s exact words.
-
Katsuko Sakai stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in the corridor at the entrance of the organizing committee office on the third floor of the Esplanade, looking outside.

The waves hit the breakwater.

In the distance, an unknown ship was blowing its whistle. The intermittent sound reminded people of the loud croaking of frogs by the lake.

(End of this chapter)