Almighty painter

Chapter 810: Little Guzi repaints the old church, and the cat king wants to beat the detective dog (Part )

August suddenly raised his head, looked in a certain direction, and grinned.

"Wang!"

It flapped its fat ears.

Judging from the freshness of this smell... the dog used to just rub against the mistress's legs and struggle to get two cat hairs out. This time, August is confident that he can dig up a big treasure for Miss Anna.

The genes of excellent tracking foxhound in its bloodline awakened.

Ah.

The dog scratched his chin twice with his hind legs - we can be detective dogs too!
The big dog raised its head excitedly, exerted its strength on all fours, leaped forward, and ran towards the path to the church.

"Hi, August! August! Come back, August."

Elliot was shocked.

The Springer Spaniel is not a particularly powerful giant dog, but it is definitely not small in size, with a shoulder height of half a meter.

August is considered quite large among the Spingeli fish, and weighs even more than Awang.

It jumped so suddenly that the rope flew out of its hand and almost knocked over the female secretary who was staring at the tower outside the church.

Elliot was shocked when he came to his senses.

While the young lady was going to church, her beloved dog ran away!
Just run away like that!
Elliot looked at the black and white dog's back as it ran happily in the sunset, and felt that his high-paying job was also happily drifting away in the sunset.

"Auguste!"

She hurriedly picked up her small bag, stepped on the half-high soles of her shoes, and rolled up behind him with a clattering sound.
-
A little after six in the evening of midsummer, the sun was neither too cold nor too warm, and it just happened to fall on the eaves of the church, with a corner blocked, like a salted egg yolk that had been bitten by a cat.

Gu Weijing used his brush to quickly leave short and fine strokes on the drawing board in front of him, stirring the light into ever-changing shapes, just like stirring salted egg yolks with chopsticks.

The film industry likes to use a term "Golden hour", which can be translated as golden hour or magic hour, or simply called magic light.

Because the sun is closer to the horizon, in the hour before sunset or the hour after sunrise, the light seen by the human eye mostly comes from indirect light in the sky.

More blue light will be scattered by the atmosphere. The light at this time is the gentlest, warmest, and most changeable, with a magical effect.

During the filming process, many crews like to rush to the early morning or dusk to grab more shots. When Monet painted Rouen Cathedral, he also chose these time points to set up a drawing board and collect materials on the spot, just for this special effect.

Gu Weijing made a bold guess.

Carroll was also influenced by this dusky hue.

She uses quick blue-purple brushstrokes to express the cold clouds, but what she expresses is like a burning flame, full of passion, turbulent warmth.

This way of processing colors is extremely special.

Green, blue, and purple are all representative colors of cool tones.

Cold colors are often used to express melancholy and heaviness or tranquility, loneliness and alienation.

The color blue frequently appears in Picasso's paintings. His "Blue Art Period" which used large areas of cold and austere colors to compose the paintings was the most difficult and restrictive years of his life.

He is accustomed to using cold colors to imply pain, and regards blue as a cage that shrouds his emotional life.

In contrast, Picasso had a few years of great success and fell deeply in love with his lover. His paintings were mostly based on yellow, red and orange, which formed his "Rose Art Period".

Bright warm colors are the colors that are used more by artists to express passion.

Gu Weijing was painting the old church again. Looking at the sun gradually sinking into the sea of ​​clouds behind St. Andrew's Church, he felt that the female painter Carol must have also carefully observed the sea of ​​clouds at sunset.

At the same moment, with the same background, countless colors and tones are constantly changing.

They are all called warm yellow or orange-red, but they can have a thousand different colors. Fiery red light swirls in the burning sky. In places with heavier clouds, the clouds appear like molten iron, while in places with thinner clouds, they are covered with a layer of wax.

If it were thinner, the wax coating would break at the seams between the clouds, and molten iron would drip from the sky and turn into liquid gold.

Even the tabby cat lying not far from the feet, sleeping with its belly exposed, was given a free golden robe by the setting sun. It seemed to be holding it sideways, with its tail and head forming a semicircle.

At the center of the semicircle is the chicken breast that is packed away.

Awang protected his midnight snack and fell asleep peacefully, looking like he would produce relics if only a fire was lit.

It is a big taboo to look around and be distracted while painting, but completely integrating into the scenery is the only way to create art.

The light shone on Gu Weijing, and he merged into the scenery on the horizon. Gu Weijing found that if the clouds in front of him were washed away from the color of sunset and replaced with a tranquil blue.

Isn’t this feeling exactly the feeling in Carroll’s works?

The dynamic feeling of the clouds is exactly the same between the brushstrokes.

The tranquil and soothing deep blue color wraps around the turbulent emotions like a burning cloud. In the gap between the clouds, one bites through a cloud like biting through a red bean paste dumpling, and what flows out is not the sunset, but the flowing lightning.

Gu Weijing looked at the sky, took the paintbrush and oil paint scraper, and painted on the canvas in front of him, making the final touches and modifications.

He had just painted a masterpiece of Impressionism.

The small candle blessed by the Muse is a panacea that can temporarily improve one's skills. Although the effect of the elixir has worn off, there is still a faint sweet aftertaste between the lips and teeth.

Gu Weijing worked hard on copying "The Old Church on a Thunderstorm Day".

After arriving in Singapore, I picked up the task of copying paintings again. I not only observed the clouds in the sky and compared them with the clouds in my mind, I observed the light in the sky and compared it with the light in the painting, I observed the old church in front of me and copied the old church in my mind more meticulously.

He also has a new understanding of the Impressionist way of capturing light, using short brushstrokes and alternating thin and thick paint to create a sense of air and volume for blocks of color.

Mr. Sloth read The Little Prince to Gu Weijing. In the book, the pilot said to the little prince: "The reason why the sea of ​​sand is so beautiful is because there is a well hidden in the desert - only those who climb over the highest sand dune will believe it."

This sounds a bit abstract.

Gu Weijing has never been able to understand the meaning of this sentence.

He stood in front of the easel and painted, and gradually he had his own understanding.

The beauty is there.

The well is there.

Only when you climb over the highest sand dune, only when you stand under the same thundercloud, under the same clouds, and look devoutly at the burning sea of ​​clouds under the sunset, and the lightning bursting in the thunderclouds, and paint your own soul in an impressionist way with delicate brushstrokes and broken blocks of color like the female painter Carol, will you believe in its existence.

In these aspects, Gu Weijing has achieved more improvements in "technique" than before.

Compared with the improvement in his technique, after experiencing the incident at Xihe Guild Hall, Gu Weijing picked up his brush again to depict the old church, focusing on the subtle differences in details such as the dynamics of the clouds, the brightness and darkness of light and shadow, and the color of the church.

What he gained more was progress in "Tao".

Good works of art always hide the creator's aspirations for the humanistic spirit.

I have painted the old church so many times.

He had done very well in the past in terms of brushstrokes, light and shadow, and details. Compared with some shortcomings in the dynamics of the pictures, Gu Weijing lacked more in his understanding of the creator's emotions.

“You will only believe it if you have climbed over the highest sand dune.” Gu Weijing essentially described Carroll’s work as a religious painting.

The second half of the 19th century.

At the same time that Impressionist painting was taking shape on the banks of the Seine, a Catholic revival movement was also taking place in Paris, France.

Many painters of that period painted works of art with churches and religion as themes. Even Monet, who believed in agnosticism, also painted a lot of church paintings. Van Gogh was simply a missionary.

Gu Weijing understood "The Old Church in a Thunderstorm" in the context of that era, and naturally he was influenced by the same thinking.

This painting is definitely not a work with a particularly strong religious atmosphere like Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" and "Salvator Mundi".

But the church itself carries strong symbolic meaning.

Gu Weijing believes that, just like Monet's "Rouen Cathedral", Carroll still regards the church in front of her as a symbol of "sacred beauty", but in her writing, she replaced the religious temple with a temple of color.

He used to always be a little bit above his own work and couldn't reproduce the sacred feeling of the female painter's work.

Gu Weijing once thought that this might be because he was not a believer and had a different cultural background, so he could not fully understand Carol's thoughts when he put his emotions on the drawing paper.

After coming out of Xihe Guild Hall.

Gu Weijing found out that he was wrong.

He thought about the painting again and realized that his understanding of Carol's feelings was still shallow.

He put himself into the perspective of a 19th century Impressionist painter and looked at the old church, but his immersion was not deep enough.

When Carol looked toward the old church, must she have felt an especially cordial religious appeal?

I’m afraid that’s not entirely true?

Gu Weijing didn't dare to say that he understood religious matters, nor did he want to offend anyone.

He has neither the qualifications nor the ability to judge such a grand issue.

He only remembered that when he was illustrating The Blazing World, the first utopian novel written by a female author and written by the Duchess of Cavendish, he had read some of the additional reading materials recommended by Mr. Sloth.

Women were often the voices that were ignored in European society at the time.

The Vatican is perceived as being more open-minded on university-related matters, with the exception of women's issues.

Until the time Carroll painted "Old Church on a Thunderstorm", they were still defined as appendages of the family rather than independent persons.

No church university refused to accept female students.

Many people believe that their "intelligence" is not enough for serious scientific education or elegant artistic influence. Even if they don't say it outwardly, they more or less think that universities that accept female students are not professional or serious enough.

Women? Well, allowing them to go to special girls' schools is already going too far.

To know.

That was the late nineteenth century, not the late eighteenth.

Madame Curie was about to discover radium, but in many places in Europe, even for social universities, if female students wanted to apply, no matter how good their grades were, it was useless. What was needed was a letter of recommendation and approval from the regional bishop (Note).

(Marie Curie graduated from high school with the highest honors and received a gold medal, but because Tsarist Russia did not allow women to go to university, she could only work as a tutor for the rich.)
They have no educational opportunities or even job opportunities.

Some priests openly declared that the only duty given to women by God is to be a good wife and a good mother, and that allowing them to work on their own, especially to participate in public labor, enter factories, and work like men would seriously "corrupt their character and morals" and make them extremely licentious and depraved.

……

But Gu Weijing knew.

Whether God exists or not.

At least, from any perspective, these things are all very, very bad.

It is even more difficult for female painters to be accepted by society.

The environment, family, parents... none of them accept the existence of female artists.

To put it very harshly, in the social atmosphere at that time, some people believed that there were only two types of women who would appear in public studios: rich ladies and prostitutes.

Oh.

Sorry, even if a real rich lady wanted a portrait painted, she would definitely send a carriage to invite an artist to her house to paint.

That leaves only the bitch.

Why did Carroll, such an excellent painter, not leave her name in history?

Gu Weijing was not sure.

Gu Weijing only knew that Miss Mary Cosart went through a lot of difficulties in her process of becoming an Impressionist painter.

Then.

When Carol stood in front of the church, was she filled with the piety of a believer? Or was she more rebellious and wanted to fight against fate?

She stood in the thunderstorm, looking at the old church.

Will it be just like myself, looking at the Xihe Guild Hall in front of me under the moonlight?
The magnificent palace-like buildings did not represent a happy residence or a sacred symbol. On the contrary, the solid walls and towering houses were all things that bound her destiny.

It is a gorgeous and sturdy cage.

It's a prison.

But the candlelight exists.

The light in her heart also exists.

The gorgeous and sturdy stone cage can lock up the body but cannot lock up the soul. As long as the candle is lit, there is still some spirit in the heart.

Then.

The light will break through.

When Gu Weijing was painting this picture, these emotions were surging in his heart.

at last.

In addition to the technique, the last piece of the puzzle that makes up the painting "Old Church in a Thunderstorm" has been patched in.

The sunset above is dazzling and breathtakingly beautiful.

As Gu Weijing finished painting the last stroke of the imitation painting, he thought to himself: "Such exciting colors should be able to echo Carol's exciting emotions, right?"

then.

He heard the prompt sound from the system indicating that the copying was completed.

(End of this chapter)