The Versatile Master Artist

Mr. Chen was not offended, but rather appreciated Gu Weijing’s character.

He looked Gu Weijing up and down, noticing the school emblem on his clothing.

”So you’re a student of Fitz, huh? I’ve had dinner with your principal before.” Mr. Chen recognized Yangon’s best art school and turned to look at the inspector next to him. ”Old pal, I remember your daughter also studies painting at Fitz, right?”

The officer was visibly taken aback for a moment, his serious face broke into a smile, and he nodded slightly: ”Yes, Mr. Chen is correct, she indeed studies at Fitz.”

He turned his head to look at the young student standing in front of the easel and pondered for a moment: ”Xiaogu, are you... Gu Weijing?”

”Hmm? Uncle, who are you?”

Gu Weijing questioned, surprised to meet someone who knew him here.

”Koukou is my daughter.”

The officer scrutinized Gu Weijing with an analytical gaze, ”She has mentioned you a few times at home.”

”Oh, so you are Koukou’s...”

Gu Weijing caught himself in time, almost blurting out Koukou’s frequent evaluation of ”a feudal old-fashioned person.”

”Turns out we’re all family here... huh?”

Looking at Gu Weijing seemed to remind Mr. Chen of his youthful days learning art, and he became very interested in him.

He stood beside Gu Weijing and gazed at the young man’s easel for a while, his eyes falling on the open folder nearby, and softly uttered a questioning sound.

The observant secretary had already picked up the folder for the boss.

Mr. Chen flipped through several pages filled with pen sketches and his demeanor became much more serious: ”Impressive, young people today are really something.”

”How impressive?” Koukou’s father curiously leaned over.

High-end tycoons liking art has been a common principle throughout history in any country.

Koukou’s father knew well that Chen Shenglin was different from those who buy artworks merely for superficial refinement.

He was a true expert.

He even had his own private small art gallery in Europe, housing a collection of paintings valued from millions to tens of millions of US Dollars.

His artistic judgment was beyond question.

Countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia in Southeast Asia, or many African nations were like this.

The poor were extremely poor, while the wealthy were unimaginably rich. Such large entrepreneurs had everyone from top to bottom in the Yangon Government trying to curry favor with them.

He had accompanied Boss Chen on these investment inspections for a long time and seldom saw him show such interest in a person.

”At this age, he’s certainly put in deep effort. His painting technique combines elements of Dongxia line drawing and European sketching, he’s ambitious, painting even better.”

Chen Shenglin stroked his chin and commented: ”What’s more remarkable is that some of these paintings are ’spirited’.”

”Spirited?”

Koukou’s father, somewhat understanding, nodded in agreement: ”Indeed, there are a few that look alive.”

”It’s wonderful, seeing such a talented young man makes me feel old. But kid... your sketches are good, but the draft of this large painting could stand some critique.”

Chen Shenglin didn’t explain further but raised his head, staring at the draft by Gu Weijing’s side.

”How so?”

After pondering for a moment, Gu Weijing asked.

He realized Mr. Chen indeed was an expert.

Not only did the other party discern his pen sketches blending line and sketch techniques.

What was rarer was recognizing the essence in those few ”heartfelt” works of his. Ordinary people could be like Koukou’s father, simply finding them beautiful without knowing why.

”It’s somewhat rigid, lacking in vitality.”

Mr. Chen evaluated from the standpoint of a seasoned art collector.

”This indeed is the drawback of the triangular composition.” Facing the pointed-out issue, Gu Weijing straightforwardly admitted.

In physics, a triangle is the most stable figure.

In visual arts, there’s a similar theory; a triangular composition in oil paintings is steady and rarely prone to major errors.

Yet mediocrity also often means lacking standout qualities in all aspects.

Strength comes in stability but fails in it too. If the picture is overly stable, it loses motion and vitality, appearing very dull and old-fashioned.

This composition method is therefore more frequently used in portrait painting.

”Do you have any good insights?”

”Move the statue of the Virgin slightly to the right, forming a left-low-right-high diagonal with the large locust tree. Change the equilateral triangle into a skewed triangle, making the image much more lively.”

Mr. Chen pondered: ”Kid, I’ve noticed your draft annotation, planning to use the statue of the Virgin as the central point and the direction of light, which is influenced by religious art. May I ask, are you a believer?”

”It’s influenced by religious art, but I’m not a believer.”

Gu Weijing shook his head.

Myanmar is a Buddhist country, with over 90% of the population being Buddhist followers.

The Gu Family still maintains the tradition of ancestor worship from Dongxia culture, apart from having no particular religious belief.

Gu Weijing is not a Buddhist and does not follow Catholicism or Protestantism.

But as others have said, the composition of Gu Weijing’s designs was indeed significantly influenced by religious art.

In the field of art, religious paintings have always occupied half of the serious oil painting domain.

The egg tempera era before the Renaissance needs no mention; basically, apart from aristocratic portraits, it was all religious paintings, with almost no third type of painting content.

It wasn’t until the 20th century that religious paintings remained a very mainstream technique.

Such as the Pre-Raphaelite, a retro faction that sought soul purity, many painters specialized in creating moral preaching religious paintings.

The statue of the Virgin was an especially representative symbol.

A very classic composition in oil painting involves a beam of light from outside the window shining onto a statue of the Virgin placed near the bedside in a bedroom.

Reflecting on the faces of mistresses, prostitutes, or gamblers, thieves, and similar characters kept by affluent scions.

Thus she (he) in the holy light suddenly realizes their moral downfall, tears flowing, hurriedly praying.

Gu Weijing’s original composition wasn’t intending to promote the prevalent Western concept of God’s love for humanity.

He merely had seen too many such works, forming sufficient inertia of thought.

At this moment’s composition of the scene in front, including classic oil painting elements like the statue of the Virgin, was like an automatic reflex upon seeing mathematical formulas.

”Too cliche, too mediocre. It lacks originality, and the composition lacks its soul. It’s merely a poor imitation of Western painters.”

Mr. Chen glanced at Gu Weijing’s draft and said calmly.

”If I were a collector, I wouldn’t pay for such a composition because of its craftsmanship. People cannot deny their origins, kid. Even if you’re eager to transform yourself into a European, the European and American art circles won’t accept you.”

The words were somewhat harsh.

However, Gu Weijing was not at all angry.

Mr. Chen didn’t bear hostility; he was simply stating facts.

”Do you have anything to teach me?” Faced with someone truly possessing high artistic literacy, Gu Weijing was always very respectful.

Among the judging panel of the Singapore Art Exhibition, there were also many seasoned collectors from around the world.

What Mr. Chen thought was also possibly what they thought.

”Light, if I were you...”

Collector Chen Shenglin inspected the picture, pointing on the sketch paper, ”If I were you, I would prefer to direct the light from the opposite of the statue of the Virgin on the right side. Completely reverse the light and shadow tones, letting the statue of the Virgin be totally submerged in shadows.”

”Like this?”

Gu Weijing pondered.

Taking color relationships to such extremes could have landed one on the stake in the medieval ages, though modern art mostly has pretty great tolerance.

Even more ”heretical and misanthropic” artistic ideas existed.

As long as they weren’t in places with very conservative ideological spectrums, there wasn’t much political correctness risk at the Singapore Art Exhibition.

But would doing this for novelty in composition be somewhat too bold?

”Kid, have you thought about how foreigners view Yangon as a place?” Mr. Chen seemed to fall into deep thought.