The Versatile Master Artist

Chapter 55: Chapter 40: One-star Painter

While Gu Weijing was sketching a figure on paper,

Koshiba Tarou was also preparing a figure sketch, with an atmosphere that was much more romantic, at least in his own heart.

Today was a family dinner day for the Sakai family.

Classmate Koshiba, who regarded himself as the Sakai family’s son-in-law, had already booked a table in the restaurant early.

Yangon Ahole Rich District’s famous seafood restaurant Kokotxa — offering traditional and absolutely authentic Spanish flavors, perfectly meeting the requirements to please his future mother-in-law.

The Kokotxa restaurant is an upscale establishment with a history of three hundred years, headquartered in the old culinary town of San Sebastian, Spain, and has been rated with Three Michelin Stars and among the world’s top fifty restaurants for many years in a row.

However, this Asian branch opened in Yangon’s Wealthy Area not long ago and has only been rated with One Michelin Star so far.

But in Yangon, a meal for five people costing nearly eight hundred US dollars per capita is already a heart-stopping number for the majority of people in this country.

Everything was perfect.

The restaurant’s environment was great, the music was melodious, the white wine was mellow, the fruit-flavored peach sponge cake was sweet, and the venison was tender.

Perhaps the only slight regret was that Xiaosong did not quite like the taste of olive oil and garlic in the red shrimp with beetroot rice and the thick Spanish cold soup as an appetizer, but Mrs. Sakai seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.

Overall,

Xiaosong was extremely satisfied with the meal.

He is a person who pursues perfection, even the car he rented at the car rental agency after landing was carefully selected. A MercS65, specially tuned by the AMG racing workshop, not as ostentatious as a Ferrari or Rolls-Royce, yet sufficiently noble, muscular, and not greasy, showcasing his image as a young, mature, and reliable good man.

At any age, in the eyes of girls of any character, it would be a plus.

The only thing not quite perfect was that.

Koizumi Katsuko seemed a bit absent-minded while eating.

Koshiba Tarou switched several topics at the dinner table, from diving in the Maldives to Swarovski’s new ruby headpiece, and even mentioned a few words about the national sports of Japan and Spain, F1.

From travel, jewelry, racing cars...

Koshiba spared no effort, speaking eloquently.

Mrs. Sakai listened with great interest, smiling and nodding, Gang Chang also showed yearning, even Professor Yajima, who usually showed little interest in these topics, shared some of his own opinions.

But only Koizumi Katsuko seemed indifferent,

except for the occasional polite smile to the waitress when serving the dishes and to the chef when they came by to say thanks, she remained detached from the entire restaurant.

She seemed like an outsider.

”Shengzi, staying in your own world alone won’t help you create good works. If you find your work too cold, you should actively experience life all the more.”

Professor Yakai Ichiro, round as ever, was somewhat lingering on as he swallowed the last piece of venison requested by the Spanish chef, Mister Redbeard.

Perhaps out of sympathy for classmate Koshiba, who had been struggling in the air for so long, or perhaps his wife finally managed to break through his fleshy calf defense with her high heel kick under the table,

In any case, Professor Yajima rapped his knuckles on the table, reminding his daughter that she had been neglecting the guest hosting this lunch for a while.

”Oh, okay.”

Responded Koizumi Katsuko, while still gazing intently at the object in her hand.

It was a beautifully bound folder containing printed photos and illustrations of various oil paintings.

It was Koizumi Katsuko’s portfolio.

This year, she had reached the age to apply to universities.

Many people around the world have studied art, but few can be admitted to art schools, especially prestigious art institutes.

For those applying to the world’s most prestigious art institutions, apart from cultural courses and some professional exams, every aspiring student needs to prepare a portfolio that can move the professors.

However, this is the requirement for general students.

Winning awards is the best portfolio for Koizumi Katsuko, given the accolades she has garnered among young painters from childhood, and the reputation of Yakai Ichiro in the art world.

Even without a portfolio, she could basically choose from the world’s prestigious schools.

Professor Yakai Ichiro understood the reason for Shengzi’s recent distress while organizing her portfolio had nothing to do with applying to schools; she was wrestling with herself.

She was dissatisfied with her own works.

In Professor Yakai Ichiro’s view, his daughter had entered a painting bottleneck period.

Her proficiency in painting skills had reached an unprecedented level among young people, at least far better than he himself at her age.

He could proudly say that in many aspects, his daughter, Koizumi Katsuko, had already reached the level of a professional painter.

But after all, Katsuko is still a little girl.

In areas beyond technique, her work’s emotion seemed too cold.

No, more accurately, it wasn’t cold, but pale.

In the art field, coldness is also a kind of impact.

A truly expressive painter can use cold brush strokes to freeze the hearts of the audience, but Koizumi Katsuko wasn’t this kind of cold, rather, it appeared hollow because she was immersed in the world of painting without much worldly experience since her early years.

She focused too much on painting, detached from life, which, in turn, made her brush appear pale.