The Versatile Master Artist

Chapter 311 - 177: Kindred Spirits_2

Spring returns to the earth, ice melts, and the gentle rain washes away the dust and sand.

Weeks of continuous effort have paid off, and all feelings of obstruction have disappeared. The stagnation of boredom and irritation in the heart has completely vanished while painting.

"It really worked!"

Just after sketching the outline of the Statue of the Virgin at the high point of the canvas, a thought turned in Gu Weijing’s mind, a secret delight.

He is on the right path.

Even though Mr. Cao Xuan himself has not ventured into the field of Fusion Painting, a Grandmaster is a Grandmaster; his insights are undoubtedly sharp.

The idea of "Line Sketching + Lang Shining’s New Style Painting" has no problems at all.

Indeed, for beginners wanting to attempt to smoothly express the concept of integrating East and West on canvas, it’s a broad highway.

Line sketches can integrate the concave-convex changes of sketch lines into meticulous line drawings.

And the Chapters on line drafts in "New Style Painting" facilitate integrating the colors of Chinese Paintings and Oil Paintings through the changes in visual focus points of dots, lines, and planes combined with color, blending the charm and essence of Eastern and Western colors into one.

The ink and colors are blended, operating smoothly.

Light sensations come from the tip of Gu Weijing’s brush, like fish returning to water, like birds soaring from mountain peaks into the sky.

This is an entirely new realm.

He cleans his brush,

gently dips it in a bit of pearl white, and begins to fill in the most basic tones of the Statue of the Virgin.

"Boom!"

The rain pattens against the window. The light rain that lasted all day turns into streaming silver threads by evening instead of showing any sign of abating.

Zigzag Lightning appears and disappears over the Old Church. The sky is dark as if it’s a piece of dark iron, with no sight of sunset or moonlight.

Gu Weijing illuminates the small studio in the orphanage with a tungsten lamp.

When Uncle Ah Lai installed an anti-theft door in this small room, he also had a construction team install a portable engineering light with a battery to make it convenient for Gu Weijing to paint.

It comes in handy just at this moment.

As the first spring thunder rumbles from outside the window, Gu Weijing just finishes the last stroke on the base drawing.

The white Statue of the Virgin, the dark gatekeeper, and the children in the yard illuminated by the sunlight...

Gu Weijing exercises restraint when painting. After outlining with line sketches each time, he only lays down basic light and dark contrasts within the main scenes, filling the composition with the simplest brushwork possible.

However, his speed in drawing the base sketches remains slow, deliberating over many lines before putting down his brush.

Such a high-distinction drawing method of Fusion Painting remains complex for Gu Weijing, who is currently at the beginner’s level of a Professional Painter. He must draw with extreme caution to master the collision of Eastern and Western cultures beneath his brush.

"Has it been such a long time?"

He looks at his watch, realizing it took him about two hours for one base drawing.

Compared to the art industrial production line in Guangdong Province’s oil painting village, where one person can paint two thousand pieces of Van Gogh’s "Starry Night" in a year...

In two hours, they could complete a whole Oil Painting with acrylics and even frame it. At that painting speed, the painter is not even fit to add chicken legs to dinner.

Even for ordinary art students, unless it’s a several-meter-long grandiose piece, sketching a base drawing is just a matter of tens of minutes.

Gu Weijing paints as slow as a snail.

Yet, Gu Weijing is in no hurry. He looks at the completed base drawing, imagines the final picture, and silently smiles.

The base drawing on the canvas has a delicate and intricate artistic balance, carrying the unique charm of two artistic styles from the Eurasian continent clashing with each other.

If it’s said,

his earlier work "Sunshine Orphanage" was a tragedy shattered by the aesthetic torrents of two different cultures,

then the present base draft is like an invisible hand merging two ancient souls into a floating yin-yang fish of Tai Chi.

This painting...

is alive!

Looking at the base drawing before him, Gu Weijing even felt a sense of relief, like a warrior sheathing his sword.

He checked the time, sent a message to his grandfather, Mr. Gu, explaining he’d be home late because of painting, but he didn’t continue working on the base drawing.

He cleaned up the paints a little and, making sure the thin layer of paint on the base drawing had fully dried, gently covered it with a dark plastic garbage bag to prevent dust.

Then Gu Weijing walked to the window, gazing at the scene outside.

"Maybe today is a good opportunity to replicate that ’Old Church on a Stormy Day’." Gu Weijing looked at the heavy rain outside, and a thought suddenly popped into his mind,

The rain was heavy,

The only light in the world was the lightning occasionally illuminating the earth, with dark clouds like flowing black tides hanging heavily overhead.

"That female painter, Carol, back then, perhaps she saw a scene like this."

He pondered for a moment and took out his mobile phone to send a message. "Miss Shengzi, do you want to come and paint together tonight?"

...

"The female painter senior Carol, back then, perhaps she saw a scene like this?"

Such a thought flashed through Koizumi Katsuko’s mind.

She had just finished showering, blow-drying her hair, and came out of the bathroom in a white silk nightgown.

Mrs. Sakai returned triumphantly after a day’s shopping spree, laden with big and small bags of jewelry. Although her purse wasn’t deflated, her body was evidently fatigued.

The lady lay on the sofa bed in the suite’s living room, with the family cinema before her still playing this year’s popular HBO drama "House of the Dragon," yet she had already fallen asleep.

"Sigh."

Koizumi Katsuko glanced at her mother’s deep breathing and smiled.

The girl went over to turn off the TV, found a blanket to cover Mrs. Sakai, but couldn’t sleep herself.

She walked into her bedroom in the suite, gently opened the window, letting the curtain sway, and the cold wind and cool rain poured in from outside.

Koizumi Katsuko likes rain; artists always like rain.

Gazing at the pitch-black rainy night always brings Miss Sakai a vast and profound sweet desolate feeling.

Thunderstorms are like a unique symphony between heaven and earth, carrying a fresh breath far from human traces.

She gently loosened some buttons of her nightgown, opened the window to the maximum, slightly lifted her white chin, opened her arms as if to embrace the rainy night, letting the nature outside engulf her.

From the back,

The wind lifted her silk robe, and her smooth legs and nosebleed-inducing white curves were faintly visible through the fleeting lightning.

If Koukou saw this scene now, she would definitely think bikinis are still weak in comparison.

Even Paul Rubens, the Baroque master known for expertly depicting the delicate skin and nude sensuality of young girls, would probably be unable to capture this moment’s charm artfully.

Koizumi Katsuko felt the cold sensation of the wind sliding through the deepest part of her skin, wanting to touch the Impressionist female predecessor’s feelings who bathed in the same storm and wind 150 years ago.

Connecting spiritually and soul-communicating with masters has always been Koizumi Katsuko’s weakness in replicating artworks.

"Possessing exquisite techniques but only empty emotions."

This may be the aftereffect of experiencing the most professional art expertise training since birth.

Rousseau from the Renaissance believed,

The highest state of an artist is to return to the "savage" knowing nothing and to experience nature’s original state with a childlike and naïve soul.

All complex techniques and acquired training will impair artists’ ability to perceive nature.

Too skillful becomes ornamental, too complex becomes vulgar, and there’s a similar saying in Oriental painting.

Of course, Koizumi Katsuko cannot forget all art theories, entirely returning to the spiritual state of the "noble savage" as Rousseau from the Enlightenment intended.

However,

She feels as she writes essays with Gu Weijing, discusses together, and continually explores the aesthetic value and emotional expression of "Old Church on a Stormy Day,"

Koizumi Katsuko increasingly extricates herself from formulaic critiques and theoretical cages from textbooks and classrooms, gradually traversing through time and walking into the inner world of the female painter Carol.

"This feeling is wonderful, I wonder if Mr. Gu is also watching the rain." She is somewhat entranced.

As Koizumi Katsuko felt she was sensing something, the phone by the bed vibrated a few times.