The Versatile Master Artist

The reason why VIPs choose luxury hotels,

is because they are buying not just the facilities, but a lifestyle.

Especially in some remote cities where connections matter, the role of a VIP butler is quite similar to that of an informant or jack-of-all-trades in Old Shanghai.

Ever since Abbot started in the industry years ago,

he’s heard countless stories from predecessors about eccentric guests and their incredible demands.

Getting a bottle of a specific vintage of fine wine for a client in the middle of the night, scouring the city to find 9,999 purple roses, figuring out how to play a proposal VCR on the city’s largest video billboard, or contacting private jet rental companies, are all fairly basic requests.

On the grayer side, like when a multinational company’s president suddenly dies of a heart attack in the middle of the night, and to stabilize the stock price, the family and private lawyers witness not calling the police, but having the butler dress up the body and quietly send it to a private hospital. Or when a Middle Eastern tycoon, on a whim, wants to buy 80 peacocks from the black market overnight along with two little tigers.

Then there are the more thrilling legendary ones, like during the famous Mumbai hotel hostage crisis, when butlers played hide and seek with terrorists in the hotel to protect VIPs, exchanging passionate fire with extremists using AK47s found on the spot.

Many stories seem like urban legends,

their truth unknown.

Abbot has seen the world in his many years in the industry, but becoming a foreman to carry out a rushed renovation is indeed a first.

After all, the customer is God, right?

The whims of the wealthy are hard to comprehend. Abbot had already told the great artist’s wife that whatever kind of studio Miss Sakai needed, he could immediately arrange it.

The Aman Hotel on the Yangon Riverfront is the city’s most beautiful and leisurely place.

Many foreign tourists and escort girls take pride in checking in on Instagram with a photo from a room at the Aman.

Why not just paint directly in the hotel!

But they were not willing, stubbornly insisting on renovating a small room in this slum. The client gives orders with words, and he has to run himself ragged.

Butler Abbot has only snoozed for a few hours these past days, his bones practically on the verge of collapse.

He finally checked the picture rail on the wall, then turned on the room’s light switch.

The bright and soft fill light shone down from the ceiling like sunlight.

The so-called picture rail is a track about five centimeters wide, with grooves for hanging cords and hooks, made of wood or aluminum, something every professional studio has for hanging and drying oil paintings in batches.

The solid wood floors and all paints and adhesives are, as per Mrs. Sakai’s request, 100% environmentally friendly and formaldehyde-free.

These things aren’t difficult, Abbot knows where to get them, and the hotel’s logistics storeroom even has them ready.

For tasks like laying floors, hiring an experienced craftsman could get it done in a few hours.

The real effort was in the studio’s lighting, using all Philips SKY300 tubular fill lights.

They include color science chips.

The color temperature ranges from 4000K to 12000K, simulating moonlight and sunlight as perceived by the human eye, ensuring no color distortion occurs during creation.

Money is a minor issue,

for those who can afford to stay at the Aman wouldn’t care about an extra few thousand US Dollars on the hotel bill.

The challenge is sourcing the lights. If not for the hotel’s existing relationship with Philips’ local suppliers, acquiring these light fixtures in such a short time would be difficult.

Then there’s the power issue.

There wasn’t enough time to install photovoltaic circuits, and the power supply was unstable. Abbot was ready to suggest to Mrs. Sakai that perhaps they should temporarily rent a generator.

Ultimately, the orphanage’s female director mentioned that there was a diesel generator in the church basement, though it wasn’t powerful enough for the entire orphanage and they couldn’t afford the diesel.

So after discussing with the foreman, Abbot decided to use a generator combined with lead-acid batteries to avoid noise affecting Miss Sakai’s daughter’s creation.

”Truly the whims of an artist, like magic. The money spent building this studio could probably support this entire orphanage for a year.”

Abbot commented after taking one last look at the scene, likening the move of a high-end studio into a centuries-old building in three days to magic.

He waited for the last speck of dust left from the renovation to be cleaned up, turned the two wall-mounted air purifiers to the maximum, and then closed the room door.