The Versatile Master Artist

Ma Shi III hopes even more to secure a fifteen-year long-term contract with Gu Weijing, using this failure to tie Cao Lao’s potential last disciple to their own gallery’s battleship.

Once Gu Weijing’s artistic style matures further, the opportunities to win awards will be abundant!

At that time, one might even consider winning some silver or bronze medals as the main awards in biennials, rather than just aiming for peripheral consolation prizes like "Best Newcomer Award" or "Wondrous Creativity Award" as this year.

Hanks thought, "Hmm, at least we can cover all of Gu Weijing’s expenses to Singapore, book a hotel for him, and offer him a standard of five hundred dollars per day during the exhibition, how about that?"

"Forget it then, no need to trouble you. We’ll book the hotel ourselves, and let the ownership of the artwork remain with Gu Weijing in the contract."

Mrs. Sakai smiled.

Regardless of winning or not, a piece that qualifies for the large biennial master category can easily sell for a minimum of 7,000 US dollars.

Sales of ten to twenty thousand are also common.

Even a tiny bit of something is still meat, such a painting with significant commemorative value in the future after becoming famous, giving away the ownership to the gallery for a few days of luxury hotel is not worth it.

"To completely rely on one’s own strength to win an award, my current painting level surely only depends on the committee’s mood. If the sense of fragmentation of the painting can be fully resolved, coupled with Shengzi’s personal creative touch with the Finger Smudging Method, and producing a piece at [Heartfelt] level, there should be a bigger chance."

At this moment, in the back row of Fitz’s classroom,

Gu Weijing reminisced about the contract signing scene from a week ago, calculating his recent plans in his mind, and lightly tapping his fingers on the desk.

"If only I could produce a work with richer emotions or the technique level of a grandmaster, that would be great."

Gu Weijing indulged in a slight daydream.

Lady Tang Ning’s entry "Hundred Flowers Painting" at the Shanghai biennial in the early 2000s was a Tier One Grandmaster level Chinese painting.

She smoothly won that year’s gold medal.

In terms of influence and previous event scales, the Lion City Art Exhibition is almost on par with the Shanghai biennial.

Besides some occasionally specially invited great painters, the level of the painters attracted to participate is almost similar.

Gu Weijing now has a bit of an insight that in the field of art, the master tier seems like a hard-to-cross threshold.

Just like the name that the system gives this stage—cross this boundary and you are a true master; fail to cross it, you are just an ordinary professional painter.

He recalled the digital catalog on the Lion City Art Exhibition’s website.

Among the artists able to participate in the main exhibition, as long as they are creators pursuing painting techniques in the classical arts domain, Level 4 is almost the minimum base line for participation.

Artists who can reach Level 5 are everywhere, and even those displaying painting technique at a Level 6, Tier Three Professional standard, dozens appear annually.

The various awards of the biennial are mostly monopolized by these Level 6 artworks.

However, works with painting skills at the master stage are extremely rare.

Compared to the not-so-rare Tier Three Professional level, even though there’s only a small stage difference, the number drastically declines sharply.

There might not even be a single piece coming out in a year.

Gu Weijing saw paintings with vivid brushwork that amazed him only in the digital catalogs of the Singapore Art Exhibitions in 2009 and 2015.

Upon using the Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill, Gu Weijing discovered they were indeed master level artworks.

The former was a Tier One Sketch Master, and the latter a Tier One Watercolor Master, one from Singapore’s largest local gallery, National Gallery Singapore, and the other from New York LIMU Gallery; both regarded as high gates and noble families in the painting world, and unsurprisingly, both won the gold medal of their respective years.

If only any aspect of "Good Fortune Orphanage Under the Light of Yangon" could be elevated to Tier One Grandmaster level.

However fierce the competition this summer might be, and even though it’s a duel arena for countless mid-range painters worldwide, winning a prize would be a sure thing.

"It’s difficult." Gu Weijing shook his head.

He understood that striving to elevate to Master Level within a hundred days is overly hopeful and unattainable.

Just moving from Level 5 to Level 6 requires a hefty ten thousand dollars expenditure, so ascending to Tier One Grandmaster probably consumes even more.

Even if he were to paint US Dollars, he couldn’t manage tens of thousands of dollars over such a long time.

"I should focus on emotions." Gu Weijing contemplated a feasible method.

The more realistic approach now is to try to eliminate the sense of fragmentation in Fusion Painting as much as possible.

Since technique level can’t be elevated, focus on enriching the emotional depth contained within the painting.

Mr. Cao Xuan taught him.

A good artwork is supported by three solid pillars of technique, emotion, and knowledge for its visual expressiveness.

He’s already felt the superb communication between audience and work that can be described as magic brought on by rising emotional levels in painting, in the "Little Prince" piece he created.

Master-level artworks are few, but those rated as [Sweat and Blood] are even rarer.

In previous years’ works, Gu Weijing found not even a single one.

Even those rated as [Heartfelt] are surprisingly scarce.

There’s a traceable route for the improvement of painting techniques.

But the infusion of painting mindset and emotions can only rely on life experiences and the blessing of the Muse Goddess; even Monet can’t casually create a [Heartfelt] piece.