The Versatile Master Artist

If she guessed correctly.

Professor Boggs’s creative approach should be that the first six pieces are themed on real stories that happened with Amy and Tony.

Omitting the sad episode of Amy’s death in between.

The last six paintings should all be imaginary scenes.

Half real, half fantasy, bringing the big kids into the fairy-tale space constructed by the professor to heal Tony’s pain.

What a brilliant idea!

Especially when the pattern on the seventh frame appeared in Anya’s eyes, she immediately felt an indescribable insight welling up in her heart.

This insight was so intense.

Anya vaguely felt that this painting was definitely not as simple as it first appeared.

Professor Boggs seemed to have inserted an incredibly exquisite design into the picture. Beneath those lines and colors—hidden an immensely profound and magnificent puzzle.

As long as you can find that thread, you instantly see the light..

”Composition design? Light and shadow contrast? What exactly is it?” The female artist twisted the floor with her toes, her heart itching.

Her gaze swept over the first six opened sketches.

Viewing them together, Lady Anya’s artistic sixth sense became even stronger.

”No, it’s not technique, it’s not composition.”

”It’s something more fundamental, more akin to the philosophy of art... it doesn’t require the knowledge of painting, it only requires the instinct and intuition to appreciate artwork, it should be—”

”The grayscale of the fur.”

Jean Arnou said calmly.

The illustrator master looked at the frame in front of her and gently applauded, ”An incredibly clever metaphor, the light and shadow design of the work is truly at the level of art, like a profound poem written with an oil painting knife, intoxicating people.”

So that’s it.

The assistant was still scratching his head in confusion, but the female artist had already let out a slow breath.

”I roughly know what the content of the remaining five sketches is. So simple yet so profound, this design is truly fantastic!”

With just a point from the illustrator master, Lady Anya also discovered the secret of this set of paintings.

The gallery founder, still full of charm, grasped her hands tightly like a jubilant little girl watching a magician pull out bright flowers from a plain high-top hat.

The excitement and joy of enlightenment appeared on her face.

Ridiculous.

Anya always liked to tell collectors visiting the gallery that the essence of modern art was in the exploration and innovation of painting forms.

Compared to the profound philosophical connotation hidden in Professor Boggs’s set of sketches.

The carefully designed painting form with Tony seemed shallow and inferior, like the erotic juggling of gypsy prostitutes by the streets in old European cities compared to the leading ballet dancer in an opera house.

”Oh, so it’s like... this.”

A few seconds later, even Dr. Jin Anqing let out a light exclamation and gave Professor Boggs a thumbs up to express admiration.

”What’s happening?”

The assistant was completely baffled.

He scratched his head, looking around, with a shocked expression like ’How did you all suddenly understand, what the hell did you all understand.’

”You don’t like pets, do you? You’ve never observed cats up close?”

Lady Anya tilted her head toward the assistant.

”This?”

”You never loved pets, so you won’t understand.”

The female artist concluded blandly.

The essence of Professor Boggs’s painting philosophy is embedded in the grayscale tones of these sketches featuring cats.

Many people familiar with cats find it strange that their little feline friends change color as they grow.

A perfectly white cat suddenly turns into a little sootball, as if switched by a thief.

In fact, all cats in the world only have two colors, black and red.

As for why most ordinary people see cats as orange, blue-gray, cream, or chocolate-colored.

Pure black and red cats are actually quite rare.

This is due to the influence of masking genes within different cats that dilute pigmentation.

Many newborn kittens and young cats have colors that are pure white as snow, just like the little cat beside Professor Boggs.

As their fur’s pigmentation shows through, during the cat shedding season in spring and summer, the fur color deepens, getting closer to the unified breed color of cats.

Common orange and alley cats develop brown stripes and spots.

The fold-eared cat breed, like Amy, retains the base color, but as they age, the grayscale deepens, as if they rolled in the morning mist.

A kitten reaches its full size around 6~7 months old, and the color of its fur is a great way to judge the age of a kitten or an old cat.

Professor Boggs cleverly integrated this feline physiological trait into his creative theme.

Each painting revolves around black and white.

The cat has always been that same cat.

The only difference is, in each painting, Boggs skillfully arranged different lighting conditions.

From the morning’s radiant sunlight, the light cascading from a crystal chandelier in a banquet hall, the warm light coming through window panes in the afternoon, to the deep colors of dusk, the flickering streetlamp in front of a psychiatric clinic.

Professor Boggs, like conducting a precise chemical experiment, lightly infused an extremely small amount of blue and ochre mixed with gray into the pearl white base color.

Eventually forming a gradually deepening gray scale.

From left to right.

If you observe closely, you’ll find it’s not just the cat, but also in terms of environmental lighting, Tony’s skin tone and attire... the overall purity and contrast of the painting’s color continuously decreases.

The change in each work is not significant.

The little things add up.

On the left-most canvas, the sketch on the linen canvas looks like a yin-yang fish with distinct black and white, but by the sixth painting, the atmosphere has already turned into a difficult-to-interpret mass of murky light and shadow.

All the color changes were handled by Professor Boggs naturally and seamlessly as effects of varying external lighting, happening... subtly and imperceptibly.

The original sixth painting.

By old age, Amy had become a grayish-yellow old fellow, her fur nowhere near as beautiful as when she was young, akin to a human suffering from so-called old age baldness.

Then comes the seventh painting.

The cat on the swing remains a big gray cat, but under the sunset, the cat’s fur turns whiter again.

It’s not the kind of white cat hair that turns white due to lack of pigmentation in late years.

It’s a younger, glossier bright color, like time has reversed.

”Just these twelve paintings could support a large art exhibition. I am fortunate to be part of the story background of such a great set of sketches, it’s an honor as a painter and as an audience member. If I’m not mistaken, the remaining five sketches will show scenes where the muddied gray separates into distinct black and white again. Completing a transformation of yin and yang, also known as... reincarnation?”

Jean Arnou raised an eyebrow.

Professor Boggs finally nodded with satisfaction, showing his work to an audience who could get the essence of the sketches, which provided him with enough fulfillment.

He flipped over the remaining five easels with their backs facing the audience.

The cat chasing a kite and the youth, a man napping on a rocking chair on a ranch with a cat lying on his lap, a cat watching the dawn on the head of a middle-aged man...

From sunrise to sunset, from sunset back to sunrise.

Twelve palindrome-like schematic paintings.

Tony gradually ages in Jean Arnou’s sketches, turning into the now wrinkle-prone middle-aged man, while the cat on the canvas has brighter, whiter, and more vibrant fur.

On the last sketch, it’s transformed back into the image of the snow-white kitten on Professor Boggs’s shoulder.

”When I first heard of this reincarnation worldview, I was captivated by its magnificence and charm. The old monk at Lingyin Temple told me that the ultimate in reincarnation is all people in this world at this time are made from the same person through countless reincarnations, and people are merely interacting with their past or future selves.”

”So loving others is loving oneself.”

”I think there is no difference between cats and humans, in the Buddhist worldview, cats in the human world are also the same cat, continuously going through the cycle of birth, aging, illness, death, and rebirth.”

Professor Boggs held the kitten on his shoulder, speaking with a philosopher’s depth, ”The unchanging shadow in Tony’s heart is Amy, as long as he realizes this, this kitten can also be Amy.”