Almighty painter

Chapter 730 Suddenly, something was wrong with the air (Part )
“Beautiful writing speaks for itself.”

Miss Elena turned her gaze to the graceful Katsuko standing beside her.

"Critics always like to see change, innovation, and the unconventional and different."

“In the Esplanade, I saw the unconventional painting styles in some people’s works. In your works, I saw the inner uniqueness.”

There was undisguised admiration in her words.

"Just four years ago, I stood in the National Museum of Western Art, holding a collection of Hayao Miyazaki's illustrations in my hands, listening to Ryuichi Sakamoto's music, and looking at the appreciation board next to your work. I felt that the music, the work, and the interpretation were a perfect match."

"And four years later—"

Today, Miss Elena walked into the exhibition and stopped in front of the pedestal at the front.

She looked at the two paintings in front of her.

One is golden, the other is tender green.

Golden color is the golden sunshine.

A little girl whose skin was dyed golden by the sunlight was standing by the vine trellis, and a chubby and round golden cat was lying beside her.

Warm and poetic.

Tender green is a tender green forest.

The tender green shadows of the trees, the tender green lake, and between the forest shadows and the lake light, on the branches, there is a forest princess wearing a brightly colored dress.

Quiet, empty and mysterious.

It is a combination of Impressionism and Neoclassicism, flowing with the creation and fascination of a dreamlike atmosphere.

「——Exhibiting Artist: Sakai Takakura」

The woman recognized the name on the plaque.

In March 2019, when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom in Tokyo, Anna remembered this name for the first time, and remembered the girl who was determined to use her paintbrush to touch the truth in her heart.

The Katsuko Sakai of the past was like Cui Xiaoming of today.

Various shortcomings.

All kinds of immaturity.

But the future is promising.

That day, Miss Irina told herself that perhaps one day, this fourteen-year-old girl would become an excellent artist and create outstanding works.

Composition, color, structure.

Technique, emotion, and intention.

Everything is harmonious and integrated.

In another twenty years, it will be another peak in the artistic journey.

She is right.

Katsuko Sakai is certainly worth looking forward to.

She was wrong.

It doesn't take twenty years.

"Only four years later - I stopped in front of your work. There was only the name Katsuko Sakai on the nameplate, but I felt the breath of nature blowing in my face beyond the hustle and bustle of the world. It seemed as if there was a quiet and empty music in my ears, the wind blew the branches, the bells jingled, out of tune, but with its own rhythm. When I turned my head to look, there were only tourists and pedestrians coming and going around me. The noise was in my ears, and it turned out to be an illusion. I knew, Katsuko, you have become different."

Today's paintings by Katsuko Sakai cannot be considered the pinnacle of her artistic career.

They are said to be amiable and lovely peaks and hills.

Not bad at all.

"From using the appreciation on the nameplate and the surrounding music to match the work, to using the brushstrokes to express the appreciation and play the music, not to mention the intention of the work, just from the painting method..."

Miss Elena actually clapped softly.

She tilted her head.

There was no smile on the woman's face, yet it seemed that she was smiling.

“——This is change, this is progress, this is being different.”

Anna spoke in the tone of a senior art critic: "Beautiful art does not need critics to speak for it, it speaks for itself...it speaks for itself."

"You have made such great progress in just 1200 days. I congratulate you, Katsuko Sakai. I hope that in the next years, you can make the world hear your voice."

"Thank you."

Katsuko Sakai leaned on the railing and looked at the booth below.

Today's meeting and conversation can be considered an unexpected surprise.

Katsuko Sakai never expected that after coming out of curator Tonks' office, she would meet the current visual arts column manager of Oil Painting magazine.

From a career development perspective, being recognized by others is no less meaningful than winning an award at the Singapore Biennale.

Someone wins the gold medal at every Biennale.

It is just a way station for an artist to reach the top of the industry.

The friendship of the Elena family is something that can only be encountered but not achieved for 99% of the people in this field, and even for many great painters who have already stood at the top of the industry and achieved success.

Whether it was three hundred years ago or three hundred years later.

Whoever can gain the favor of a big money sponsor like the Elena family will officially enter the upper class, and from then on, his career path will be smooth and he will have no worries about food and clothing.

This industry is very class-divided.

The contract handed over by the Grand Gallery is a good thing that can make Gu Tongxiang as beautiful as if she had two extra hairs when she looked in the mirror.

But the big galleries are not without troubles.

They also demand people.

Even a billionaire like Marcel Schneider, who has assets worth hundreds of millions of euros, had to tie a 5000 million dollar contract to his fishing hook. He stood on the beach, holding his old waist, and swung his rod desperately, trying to lure a 230-pound fat seal named Kazunari Sakai to take the bait and come ashore.

And if Anna Elena looks someone in the eye and says, "Congratulations, I look forward to your progress. Please use your work to tell the world your inner voice."

Even if this did not imply sponsorship of your exhibition, but was just pure praise, it was enough to make Issei Sakai feel so satisfied that he felt like he had eaten two more baskets of donuts in his sleep.

It has nothing to do with gains and losses.

When a person who sponsored both Ingres and Delacroix, financed personal exhibitions for Rubens and Theodore Géricault, invited Kandinsky to his home when he was traveling in Central Europe to discuss art with him, was the largest buyer of Picasso and Mondrian, and the heir to an ancient collecting family whose collection room contains Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts, and is the largest private shareholder of the most powerful art review magazine, says "congratulations" to you in person.

Whose heart would not be filled with great joy and great vanity?

this moment.

Do people have an illusion that the brilliant peak of the art world is already beckoning to them, and that they think they will be recorded in history and live forever?
Maybe.

Katsuko Sakai felt that her heart should be filled with joy.

She should be filled with joy.

Unfortunately not.

Not at all... No... Maybe there is still some? After all, it is really rare to have the favor of Miss Elena, but it is only a little bit.

Not much.

She quietly tilted her head and leaned over to look at the booth below.

The girl's neatly cut bangs fell over her eyebrows.

From this angle, the front of the painting cannot be seen. Shengzi can only see the back of the booth. The metal base of the booth is printed on the dark gray marble floor, reflecting the sunlight.

It is like a house light in the night.

The joy of success turns out to be this: the joy of being affirmed, the joy of satisfying oneself, the joy of meeting parents' expectations, and the joy of being successful...

Have expectations.

There is desire.

There is pain.

Her heart was a backpack made of bamboo strips, and Shengzi put fruits into it as she walked.

The seven emotions and six desires, love, hate, separation and sorrow.

Release as you walk, release as you walk.

Finally she stood here, on the third floor of the Esplanade, not far away was the curator Tonks, her parents, and next to her was the heir of the world-famous Elena family.

She made her debut at this exhibition.

So far, everything is going well.

One day, not too long, she might also become world-famous.

The big basket behind Katsuko Sakai was already filled with things.

A pressed piece, flush with the top of the backpack.

But it just can't be pressed solidly.

One can never fill all the space in a bamboo basket with fruit.

It seems full, yet not full.

There will always be gaps there.

Katsuko Sakai put all kinds of bitter, spicy, pleasant, red, green, yellow and white fruits into the bamboo basket one by one.

It seems to be filled, but it cannot be filled. There will always be a gap in the heart.

not much.

A little bit.

But it just can't be pressed firmly or tightly, which makes people feel empty.

It's not even tangible, it makes people cry heart-wrenchingly.

Katsuko Sakai is not a girl who cries endlessly.

After crying, I stopped crying.

She will only feel a little bit cold and lonely, and feel that her happiness is not real happiness, and her satisfaction is not real satisfaction.

It would not wake her up in her sleep, but it would make it difficult for her to fall asleep. She would stare at the chandelier on the ceiling for a long time on the Simmons bed in the hotel, and at the window of the Hilton room, looking at the brilliant lights of the art center and the ebb and flow of the tide on the coastline until late at night.

months ago.

She was also watching the rain like this from the hotel window in Yangon.

months ago.

She was also in the small studio in the orphanage, imagining future art exhibitions and the day when they would become successful and have their two names together.

Hundreds of years later, in the art museum, in front of the crowds of tourists——

Next to one person's name... next to... is another person's name.

On quiet nights and afternoons, just imagining the future would fill Katsuko Sakai's heart with warmth and joy.

Her soul.

Her small backpack was soaked in the warm spring water.

The spring water tinkled.

My heart is beating fast too.

now.

She stood alone in the magnificent art gallery, among the national symbols and landmarks of Singapore, looking at the "house lamp" beneath her, and at her own painting illuminated by the lamp.

Just like that day.

She was sitting in the back seat of the Lexus as it drove away. In the rearview mirror, she watched the young man waving at her under the house light, who was moving further and further away.

Katsuko Sakai cherishes these paintings.

As.

Katsuko Sakai felt sorry for Gu Weijing.

She looked at the booth on the first floor with her hands clasped in front of her chest.

Shengzi once heard an architect jokingly say during an exchange program that the design of an art gallery or large department store, where there is no floor in the middle and one can directly see the ceiling from the lobby on the first floor, is called "exquisite and versatile."

It has no connotation in itself.

Like an exquisite doll.

What kind of exhibits you put on the stage and what kind of thoughts you put on it, that's what kind of person you are.

A ray of light.

Sunlight, moonlight, starlight.

They are all good at dealing with people.

And those memories of the past, her heart, like this exhibition hall, is a carved wind chime.

It is meant to be hung under the eaves of a room to be listened to. When the solar terms arrive, it reflects the sound of the whistling wind.

Anna noticed the soft look on Katsuko Sakai's face.

It carried a meaning that was similar to the long silence in Katsuko Sakai's voice during the podcast recording, which she could not understand.

Miss Elena was a little curious.

She was also a little confused.

But in the end.

She still didn't bother the other person.

"I don't know if it was a coincidence that Mr. Miyazaki scheduled the meeting at that occasion. But I guess that Hayao Miyazaki himself would like your work very much. Maybe, when you were being interviewed that day, the person who was watching you from afar, besides me, was Hayao Miyazaki himself?"

Anna considerately changed the subject.

"Have you seen him?"

"I've met him once or twice, but I'm not very familiar with him."

Katsuko Sakai was still staring at the booth in a daze.

"Well, we were both in the same art gallery that day, and I was looking at you, and you were looking at the paintings."

Anna smiled.

"It's the same today. To be honest, I don't see this kind of thing very often."

"Sorry, I was a little bit..." Katsuko Sakai turned her head away a little embarrassedly.

"Don't get me wrong, this is good, and it's not an accusation." Miss Elena said, "I mean... so when I told you that we had met before, it was normal that you didn't remember it."

"But anyway, today we have truly met. Nice to meet you, Ms. Sakai Katsuko."

"Me too. Nice to meet you, Miss Elena. I've been feeling a bit down lately, but that's not directed at you."

Katsuko Sakai took the initiative to extend her hand.

"I like you, we will become good friends."

"of course."

The woman in the wheelchair also extended her hand to Miss Sakai.

"Let's talk about something lighthearted. Can I ask you a question?"

"Tell me everything you know."

"I'm sorry, but I'm a little confused. How could a lovely girl like you like someone like Gu Weijing?" Miss Elena smiled and blinked as she shook hands.

Katsuko Sakai was stunned.
-
Anna is in a really good mood.

Just as Katsuko Sakai said, perhaps, they will become good friends?
Miss Irina is extremely difficult to get along with in daily life.

Her appearance, her majesty, her wealth... ordinary people would feel the oppression of "Anna's halo" even if they just looked at her from a distance.

They will be shy, nervous, and unable to breathe.

Lao Yang has a lot to say about this.

He had specially trained Gu Weijing and told him that without the special training given to him by Brother Yang, a young man like Gu Weijing who had never seen the world would stutter and even forget how to pronounce "A, B, C, D" when he opened his mouth in front of Anna.

however.

If anyone is lucky enough to enter Miss Elena's heart.

You can also see completely different scenery.

She is sophisticated and mature. She can make great artists scream with her sharp criticism, and she can slap Sir Brown's face left and right until it is swollen.

But Miss Elena is still only 22 years old.

She is a superior and a big shot.

But she is not much older than Katsuko Sakai.

She herself is still a warm young girl.

The impression of Mr. Sloth in Gu Weijing's mind seems to be more in line with Anna's inner world.

The image of Anna in his mind is similar to the image of Anna in many people's minds.

Equally knowledgeable.

Just as talkative.

Equally elegant and graceful.

The image of Mr. Sloth in Gu Weijing's mind is different from the image of Miss Elena in everyone's mind.

She is sensitive and passionate.

She is noble yet soft and warm.

She has a bit of a contrasting cuteness.

After all, he is a person who, when talking about his "nephew's" love life, will talk endlessly about the "emotional classroom" on the small blackboard.

It was his sloth-headed military advisor.

With such warm emotions, how could she not be a warm person?
More than just temperature.

The other party is even a little gossipy.

Gu Weijing entered Anna's heart, so Anna gave him a completely different "Mr. Sloth" in return.

Mr. Sloth is a warm-hearted person who can't help but care about you in her own unique way.

"Gu Weijing?"

Katsuko Sakai never expected to hear this name from the other person's mouth.

The girl withdrew her hand, gently brushed her earlobe with her little finger, and turned her face away. Miss Elena could not see her expression clearly.

"Yes."

Anna nodded.

"You like him, right? I mean... once upon a time." Miss Elena asked solemnly.

"Ah."

Shengzi made a very light nasal sound.

"how do you know?"

"I listened carefully to your 'Mr. Sloth's Art Salon' not long ago. It was not just talk." Anna also looked into the distance.

"Is it impressive?"

"Impressive, you did a great job."

"What I'm asking is, do you have any impression of Gu Weijing?" asked Katsuko Sakai.

"I've heard some rumors and things like that, and I've had a little bit of interaction with him... Overall, it's quite complicated. He sounds a bit slick and utilitarian. I heard that his grandfather was a small businessman who ran a painting shop?"

Anna said softly.

She could understand but did not appreciate Gu Weijing's way of doing things.

This is especially true in the past few days, during the art exhibition, when I heard more and more rumors.

The art world is so small.

Singapore is even smaller.

Oil Painting Magazine came to do an interview project, in the identity of Miss Elena. She heard all kinds of words from people in the industry, from Liu Ziming, Tang Ning, Cui Xiaoming's parents... all kinds of things, as long as she wanted, they could all reach her ears.

What's more, she was deliberately collecting information about Gu Weijing.

Anna couldn't even believe it. The other party was the young man who insisted on speculating that "Carole" was an unknown female painter on the banks of the Seine as mentioned by Katsuko Sakai.

People like Gu Weijing, who don't want to lag behind even in the limelight on a podcast program.

he……

How could it be possible to do something so pure?
There must be some unknown calculations involved.

Miss Elena admires Katsuko Sakai.

Therefore.

She didn't understand why Katsuko Sakai liked Gu Weijing.

Art circle.

Vanity Fair.

There are many people who are self-satisfied, self-righteous and self-important.

There is never a shortage of people vying for power and influence.

It’s not that Gu Weijing is so bad.

But Gu Weijing is not good enough.

There has never been a shortage of people like Gu Weijing who are obsessed with fame, wealth, and being the center of attention. Miss Elena has seen a lot of them since she was a child.

Therefore, it further highlights the rarity of people like Katsuko Sakai.

I will become a great painter.

I just need to paint my own picture.

What a cute and pure girl!

Cute girls should like cute guys.

A pure girl should have pure love.

Gu Weijing was not wrong.

He just wasn't good enough.

Since he is not good enough, he is not worthy of Miss Sakai who is good enough.

Could it be possible that the two of them were in sync with each other?
If the young man whom Cao Xuan values ​​and the daughter of Sakai Kazunari are really just a combination of interests, then... it would be too disappointing.

There is a bit of a delicate and warm-hearted gossip-loving person deep in Anna's soul, but in her life, there is a lack of people with whom she can gossip.

She thought Mrs. Detective Cat's view on love was naive and cute, so she was afraid that she was being deceived.

As a master of armchair theory, Anna immediately tapped the blackboard, took out a large book on love, and gave Detective Cat a love refresher course.

She thought Katsuko Sakai had fallen in love with someone who was not worthy of him.

then.

She tapped the blackboard again, ready to deliver her "Anna's Sharp Comments".

Van Dorn, Sir Brown or maybe Cao Xuan.

Miss Elena always wants to be sharp.

Gu Weijing... Even if Cao Xuan likes him, who is he as someone who wants to win the gold medal in the Detective Cats art exhibition?
"Yes." Katsuko Sakai nodded.

"Have you heard any bad rumors?" Katsuko Sakai heard the deeper meaning in the woman's tone.

"Not good? Well, it's not bad. I..."

Anna hesitated.

After all, they didn't do anything too extreme.

She changed to a more euphemistic description: "I heard that he really wants to win an award at this Biennale... maybe he wants it too much."

"You're overthinking it." She added playfully.

"Like you said, Ms. Sakai, things at the exhibition should only be related to art," said Anna.

"I also want to win the award. Every painter who comes to the Biennale wants to win the award."

Katsuko Sakai said softly.

"No, Ms. Sakai, this is something completely different." Anna shook her head and looked at the exhibition and tourists below: "You have produced a good enough work, this is the key to the problem."

"Everyone wants to win an award, but awards are not given by charity, but earned by yourself. You have to be good enough, strong enough, and excellent enough to hold a gun in your hand and shove the paintbrush into the judges' throats to force them to give the award to you-"

Katsuko Sakai once said the same thing to Gu Weijing.

Different from Shengzi's gentleness.

When the same words fell into the mouth of Anna, the "Countess" and the "Queen", she could use her clear voice to express the momentum of the clash of swords.

"—You have to conquer this exhibition on your own."

"It's not about making you worthy of the award, but about making the award worthy of you," Miss Elena concluded.

“Only very few people and very few works can achieve this.”

(End of this chapter)