The Versatile Master Artist

”Shengzi, Gang Chang, let’s get ready to leave.”

”You go ahead, I’ll take a taxi back to the hotel later.”

Koizumi Katsuko stubbornly refused her father’s suggestion.

She now sat before Gu Weijing’s copied work, holding a palette in one hand while experimenting with new colors on the palette with the brush in the other hand, endlessly daubing the canvas at the side.

Prussian blue plus rose red plus a very small amount of lemon yellow...

It should be the effect of these primary colors mixed together...

But what is still missing?

Koizumi Katsuko frowned in distress.

”Shengzi, you need to paint more with intuition.” Uncle Sakai shook his head and advised.

”What is intuition? Five percent lemon yellow.”

Koizumi Katsuko looked at the palette in her hand, raised her eyebrows slightly, with a little confused expression like a housewife reading an ingredient list on food, ”Did I add too much or too little?”

”Miss Shengzi, may I say something?”

Gu Weijing said softly from the side: ”It’s not about five or four percent lemon yellow, you’re too focused on restoration and lack the... truth.”

Koizumi Katsuko’s foundation in oil painting was better than Gu Weijing’s.

And her sensitivity to color amazed him.

Yesterday, he needed to employ Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill to mix the colors, while Koizumi Katsuko, relying solely on her intuitive sense of the colors in the painting, managed to get them nearly right.

The issue was, Koizumi Katsuko’s color mixing was too perfect, her brush control too precise, thereby lacking variation.

Impressionism emphasizes variation, sometimes every stroke changes color.

Even though it was just a tiny bit of change missing, that sliver nevertheless lost the wild and free-spirited essence of Impressionism.

Gu Weijing dared to stake his head on it,

the original painter named Carole must have painted the scene facing rolling storm clouds on a rainy night.

Thinking of this, Gu Weijing suddenly realized something very important.

”Uncle Sakai, have you heard of this painter Carole?”

In the painting world, his insight couldn’t compare with Uncle Sakai’s, perhaps the latter had heard of the mysterious female painter Carole’s background.

”No, if I’d heard of her, I’d have told you just now.”

Uncle Sakai shook his head in denial, ”Probably some unfortunate 20th-century female painter. You know, female painters get far fewer opportunities. If it were a century earlier, even I wouldn’t agree to let Shengzi learn painting.”

”Not the 20th century; this painting should be created in the 19th century, perhaps even the 1880s or earlier.”

”What? Are you sure? Why do you say that?”

Professor Yakai’s face instantly turned serious, recognizing what this meant.

Impressionism itself was an art form that emerged in the latter half of the 19th century.

During that era, even Monet had only recently painted ”Impression, Sunrise.”

He saw the skills in this work as very mature and assumed it was a 20th-century creation.

”Most likely it’s like that.”

Gu Weijing revealed his reasoning.

”This is very interesting, young man.”

Uncle Sakai spoke like a pit bull that smelled something tasty, shaking the fat on his chin.

”Even though I still don’t know Lady Carol, a female painter who could create during this era must be extraordinary. Are you willing to listen to my advice?”

”What do you propose?”

Gu Weijing gestured that he was all ears.

”Such a great opportunity, why not publish an article about it?”

Uncle Sakai glanced at the canvas frame, offering a suggestion.

”Publish an article? You mean newspapers and magazines, or something like ’Oil Painting’?”

”Art newspapers? Humph, as if they measure up.”

Uncle Sakai sneered: ”’Oil Painting’ indeed has quite an impact, but they don’t accept public submissions. Plus, this topic on ordinary art magazines is truly wasted.”

”You’re implying...”

At the side, Master Gu Tongxiang’s pupils contracted deeply for a moment, ”Professional academic journals?”

”Yes, discovering a female Impressionist painter whose identity is unknown but whose artistic style is mature from the 19th century, particularly this rare painting with a dark background. Such a discovery could at least warrant an SSCI article, but I think you might even try A&HCI.”

Uncle Sakai asserted.

SSCI, America’s Science Information Institute created the Social Sciences Citation Index, which includes 58 subcategories on art, philosophy, law, etc., considered the sister publication to the international core journal of the sciences, SCI.

It is the world’s most authoritative professional art journal, with high credibility.

Literature journals, however, differ from science journals, publishing in literature is either very trivial or exceedingly challenging if serious.

Especially some niche artistic research, where a professor might publish an article only once every ten or fifteen years.

A successful science field, master’s graduates might need several SCI publications before graduating.

According to Eastern Art Academy’s PhD graduate standards in art, publishing just one SSCI is considered an accomplished graduate.

For domestic core journals, graduating might require at least three or even five articles.

Speaking of A&HCI, short for ’Arts & Humanities Citation Index,’ it covers fewer than 70% of the journals that SSCI does, always hailed as the crown jewel of professional art journals.

”Can a publication really go in A&HCI?”

Faced with sixty thousand dollars, Master Gu Tongxiang remained composed, but hearing the possibility of publishing a professional article,

the elder gentleman suddenly became excited.

Disregarding the scholarly sentiment long present in the East Asian calligraphy and painting circle that values scholar-type painters, a painter without culture becomes just an artisan.

Nowadays, what characterizes the artists standing at the pinnacle of the art world?

If founding a sect as an Art Master is akin to being an emperor of the art realm, then scholarly artists must at least be concubines or a prime minister.

Although their income might not surpass those on the Forbes celebrity wealth list, their societal status certainly holds its own.

The art path is very uncertain.

Three parts self-attention, seven parts patrons. Great paintings are simply the baseline for success, yet professional scholars can significantly control their destiny.

An A&HCI article not only opens any art academy’s doors easily but also entertains thoughts of lifelong academic positions in Western universities, as valuable as gold.

An artist’s career often hinges solely on a brush.

Some painters, much like pianists, even insure their hands in fear of one day not being able to hold a brush.

If Gu Weijing, the grandson, can obtain an A&HCI, it can guarantee he won’t starve this lifetime.

Even if his painting career doesn’t flourish, he could join a private gallery, endure years, and eventually become a curator, all quite possible.

”We’ll see.”

Even with Uncle Sakai’s current status, he couldn’t guarantee publication in A&HCI, only offering tentative speech.

”If there’s professional guidance, it might be possible, I can’t assure, but perhaps try ’Asian Art’ or ’Taylor Art.’ A few months ago, I saw ’Spectatorship and Visual Entanglement in the Anagni Basement’ on Taylor Art, merely a mural discussed... Female artists’ topics have been academic hits in recent years, an unknown early female Impressionist and unusual cold-toned Impressionist creations truly catch a reviewer’s eye.”

Unlike sciences, literary magazines often struggle not in research but in research material scarcity.

A sculpture buried deep in dust, an ancient mural... Once discovered, only a few months are needed to birth numerous papers on them.

Discovering them may take a decade or twenty years of relevant archeology work.

This mirrors astronomers using billion-dollar telescopes in observatories: finding stars is merely the final step in publishing.

Put it like this, if you managed to find Van Gogh’s diary recording his emotions while painting, simply extract and organize those contents--you could submit anywhere.

But you can’t find it.

If it weren’t for Gu Weijing once visiting Good Fortune Orphanage, perhaps no one would ever uncover this painting’s secrets.