Chapter 22
He had to hurry up and pursue his wife. Although Zhong Miao didn't mind his closeness, she didn't want to spend her whole life with him. She was like a bunch of dandelions, which might be blown away by the wind at any time. This made him feel very insecure.
However, he really couldn't express the word "love" or "affection". What he wanted was not short-term intimacy, but long-lasting affection. How should he pursue his wife?
If marriage is a city, he has already fallen at least halfway, and this feeling is increasing every day, but Zhong Miao is still watching from the top of the city wall.
Before they finished their meal, Erwa's voice came from outside, "Brother Ze, there's a call. It's someone named Li Qiumo looking for his sister-in-law."
When Zhong Miao heard this, he immediately put down the bowl and pulled Pei Ze, "Hurry up and go." This is a master-level figure, and he cannot be neglected.
The room at the very edge of this small house was the only office of the furniture factory. As soon as Zhong Miao entered, she saw the red telephone on the table. She had only seen this thing on TV and in old photos before. She had also seen it once in a convenience store before.
"Answer it." Pei Ze pointed at the phone.
"Hello." There was a hint of caution in Zhong Miao's voice.
"Hello, are you Zhong Miao?"
"Yes, Mr. Li."
"Hahaha, that's a good way to call you teacher. If you have time today, why don't you come to the department and try color?"
"Okay, okay teacher, what time should I go?"
"I'm here today. You can come anytime. The Oil Painting Department is the second floor behind the Sculpture Department. There's a sign on the door. It's the Second Engineering Teacher's Office."
"Okay, teacher, I only have gouache paint, is that okay?"
"Well, if you're worried about not being able to use them, bring your own. Otherwise, use mine. Oil, gouache, or watercolor will do. It's so cold, so don't bring anything."
"Okay, thank you, Teacher Li."
"Okay, that's it."
After hanging up the phone, Zhong Miao was still in a daze. Did she get the approval of her master?
Pei Ze waved his hand in front of her eyes, "Silly wife, come back to your senses."
Zhong Miao laughed, hugged him tightly, raised her little face and smiled at him, "Hahaha, Teacher Li asked me to go over and try painting today, ahhhhhh."
"Hahaha, are you so excited?"
Pei Ze saw her eyes shining, and she hugged him excitedly. He couldn't help but hug her back, and the depression he had just felt was dispelled by this hug.
"Of course, of course. When are we going?"
"Go back and eat first, I'll take you there."
"Okay, let's go eat."
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Zhong Miao and Pei Ze walked into the bungalow of the Oil Painting Department. The layout of this place was similar to that of the Sculpture Department. The doorplate that Li Qiumo mentioned was just like the sign in the high school classroom with the year and class written on it, hanging on the door frame.
Passing by the first studio, the second studio, and the third studio, you will see three teachers' offices.
In the past, the Oil Painting Department of Qingmei had already grown to five studios, and the fourth and fifth studios have not yet been established.
What Li Qiumo was talking about was the teacher's office in the second studio.
Zhong Miao knocked on the door, and when he heard someone say "come in", he unlocked the door and went in.
She finally saw Li Qiumo, but, uh, was Li Qiumo a spirited young man at this time?
His medium-length hair was tied into a small bun, like a chicken's tail at the back of his head. He wore thin-framed glasses, a leather jacket with a striped shirt underneath, and baggy black pants, giving him the style of an early literary youth.
Nowadays, most people wear clothes in black, white, gray, blue, green and other colors, and the colors are not very rich. Flowered cotton jackets are a bit outdated, and young people don’t like to wear them anymore.
Not only the clothes, but also the hairstyles are very monotonous nowadays. If Li Qiumo stood in the crowd, he would definitely be able to spot this outlier at a glance.
There is an old saying in the north: from a distance you see them as rag collectors, from close up you see them as art academy students. This means that most artists are independent and have unique personalities in their dress and appearance.
Artists must have their own individuality, otherwise how can they have the confidence to stick to their own ideas and style, and create unique works that are even timeless masterpieces?
Moreover, the paintings are not so clean. Paint, pencil dust, grease from various materials can get all over the body if you are not careful, which certainly does not look very neat.
However, this teacher Li is different from Li Sanshan's rough style. Not only is he much more refined in his dress, he is also handsome. Although he is about 30 years old, he looks like a young man in his twenties.
"Hello, Teacher Li, I'm Zhong Miao."
Li Qiumo was also stunned when he saw the person coming. Li Sanshan said that the girl was beautiful, but he didn't care much. He had seen many beautiful girls.
But this girl is really beautiful, the kind of beauty that is unique and spiritual.
To him, beauty is not that rare, but beauty is different. Beauty on the surface is not that rare, but beauty in the bones is really rare. Beauty lies in the bones, not in the skin.
Li Qiumo's aesthetic standards directly led to his bumpy love life, and he only had a short marriage when he was in his forties.
"Hello, hello, classmate Zhong Miao, who is this?" Li Qiumo looked at Pei Ze.
"Hello, teacher. I am her lover Pei Ze."
"Ah? Married?"
"Yes, Mr. Li."
Pei Ze was a little unhappy. This peacock man didn't look like a good person. Would it be okay for Zhong Miao to become his student in the future?
"Teacher Li, you are so young."
In his previous life, Zhong Miao had only seen a photo of the artist Li Qiumo in a picture album, but he was already gray-haired by then.
"Haha, little girl, you're really good at talking. What do you want to paint? I don't have any plaster still lifes or anything like that. I usually paint here. Do you want to try it here or go to the studio?"
Li Qiumo's office is quite large, filled with all his works, and it also has a pungent smell of turpentine.
At first, Zhong Miao would get a headache after smelling the pine oil for a long time, but later he gradually got used to it.
The diluent for gouache and watercolor is water, but it cannot be used for oil painting. The reason why it is called oil painting is because the pigments are oil-based and can only be dissolved in various oils.
Turpentine is a diluent for oil paints and can be used to adjust colors, but it is mostly used to wash brushes.
Because of the characteristics of this oil, it is not suitable for depicting details. It is mostly used when drafting. In the later stages of painting, linseed oil is mainly used as a diluent to blend colors.
In the past, painting materials were more abundant than they are now, and there were other substitutes for turpentine. If you didn’t like the smell, you could change the material. But now, there are not so many substitutes.
"Here is fine, let me draw him." Zhong Miao pointed at Pei Ze beside him.
"Okay, oil or gouache?"
"Oil painting takes too long. I can't finish it today."
Zhong Miao also wanted to paint oil paintings, but oil paintings cannot be dried in a short time, and the characteristics of the pigment mean that it takes longer to paint.
"It's okay. If you can't finish the painting today, I'll keep it for you and continue it later. I have a few pieces of canvas with good glue on them. Come and see what size is suitable?"
Zhong Miao watched as Li Qiumo pointed at the picture frame standing in the corner. The canvas had been stretched across the inner frame, and the base material had been applied. She went over to take a look and picked out a piece about the size of a quarto. "This is it."
Zhong Miao touched the canvas. At that time, the base material of the canvas was gelatin, latex glue, etc. Gelatin was the kind made from pig skin. It was not as good as the base material in her previous life, but she had also used latex glue. It is said that Western masters many years ago also used things like egg white.
There is a slight difference between latex glue and later base materials, and it is prone to cracking over time.
Almost all the masterpieces of masters that have been passed down for a long time will crack, which is also related to the materials used at that time.
However, later restoration technology became better and these damaged works of art could be repaired.
Li Qiumo found an unused easel and brought over his own paint box, which contained a lot of paints and tools scattered around.
Pei Ze stood aside and watched the two of them busying themselves. He really didn't understand what was going on. He just felt that Li Qiumo had a lot of things here, and they were placed everywhere. As for what they were used for, he really didn't know.
He had never seen anything like paint in Zhong Miao's house, and had no idea where Zhong Miao learned these things.
Zhong Miao looked up at Pei Ze's face, squeezed the colors he needed onto the palette, and pointed to the small sofa in front of the desk. "Pei Ze, just sit there."
"Do we need to turn on the lights?" Li Qiumo asked.
"No, this is fine."
Zhong Miao responded. She was a little excited and couldn't wait to get started. She had never tried antique paints at that time.
Pei Ze sat down obediently and waited for his wife to paint him. His face was obviously much uglier than usual, but the two painters from different eras didn't care about his jealousy and just chatted among themselves.
"Don't you need to make a pencil draft?" Li Qiumo couldn't help asking when he saw Zhong Miao diluting some ochre with turpentine and applying it to the canvas.
"No, just come directly."
Zhong Miao's words piqued Li Qiumo's interest. It seemed that his modeling skills were quite good.
Zhong Miao quickly sketched out the shape of Pei Ze's face, and then adjusted the background color. He used large brush strokes and large blocks of color and applied them directly.
"Pei Ze, just smile, just smile." Zhong Miao made a request.
"Haha, that's a lot of requests." Pei Ze showed his standard Pei-style smirk, handsome and a little evil. It must be said that he looks really good.
"Haha, you have a nice smile, it looks nice." Zhong Miao also praised with a smile.
Pei Ze was also happy when he heard this.
Li Qiumo read the beginning and then went to the side to busy himself with his creation.
It seemed to him that there were no classes, or the topics had already been released and there was no need for his real-time supervision. This was how art academies were at that time, with a high degree of freedom.
The young artist stood in front of a canvas more than two meters high, picking up a brush to deal with the details. There was a ladder next to him, and he had to stand on the ladder to paint if the place was too high. Indeed, oil painting is also a physical job.
Zhong Miao glanced at his painting. She had seen this one in a book before. It had even won an award. It was an early work of Li Qiumo and was later sold at a high price of over 200 million yuan. When she looked at it up close, it was even more shocking than in the book. He was indeed a great artist.
Oil paint will not dry out in a short period of time, which makes it easier for Zhong Miao to depict in depth.
As time passed, Pei Ze's smiling face appeared on the canvas, and the picture became richer and richer, changing every once in a while, from good to better.
"Pei Ze, you can take a break, it's enough." Zhong Miao no longer needs a model.
"good."
She has an excellent sense of color and is very experienced. She uses adjacent colors, contrasting colors, and environmental colors, and the colors are rich and harmonious. The brushstrokes also have a sense of volume.
The most important thing is that she added some subjective designs to the painting based on the real people themselves, and the whole painting is full of her unique painting language.
Since Zhong Miao no longer needed him, Pei Ze picked up two books from Li Qiumo's bookshelf and started reading. He should also learn about the art of painting. After all, that's what his wife does.
When Li Qiumo heard what Zhong Miao said, he couldn't help but come over to see what Zhong Miao had painted. It really surprised him. Li Sanshan said that this girl was only twenty years old. Is she so amazing?
Given Zhong Miao's level, there isn't much he can teach. Rather than being a student, he can be more like a colleague with whom he can exchange experiences and ideas.
How could he know that Zhong Miao's application to the Academy of Fine Arts was purely based on her father's arrangement.
For her, applying to an art academy is not just for studying. She paints wherever she goes, simply because the art academy has an environment, atmosphere, rich resources and information that can provide her with a breeding ground for creation.
When she graduates from the Academy of Fine Arts, she will be a legitimate painter in the industry and will not be called a jungler.
Although she started from her freshman year, the teaching environment at the Academy of Fine Arts is relatively free, and the teachers are not rigid and inflexible. They teach students in accordance with their aptitude. While she is creating, there are people who can provide her with different ideas, which is very suitable for her to continue her studies.
This is like why painters like to gather in places like Painters Village, because there is atmosphere, life, people like them, and there are profits to be made.
"Zhong Miao, with your level, you can start graduate school early." Li Qiumo commented.
Pei Ze looked at Li Qiumo in surprise, then stood up and walked behind Zhong Miao. It was obvious that it was him in the painting, with the standard Pei-style smirk on his face, but there was something different about it. He couldn't tell what the problem was. He didn't understand colors, nor could he understand paintings.
"But, can I study for a master's degree without a bachelor's degree?" Zhong Miao asked.
"Well, it doesn't seem to work. I don't really understand these things, but I can help you find out." Li Qiumo replied.
"Okay, thank you, Mr. Li."
"Haha, no trouble. If you pass the exam and get into the second-level engineering school, I'll have something to brag about. You'd better not change your studio." Li Qiumo joked.
"No, it's my honor to be Mr. Li's student."
It is really a special fate. Her previous mentor was Li Qiumo's student, and now she is about to become Li Qiumo's student.
"Then I'm relieved. How are your academic performance?"
Li Qiumo was a little worried. There were some promising students before, but they put all their energy into painting and were very poor in academic subjects. What's worse, their scores in academic subjects were not much better than those of an illiterate person. It could be said that they could not even read a single word.
"Teacher, don't worry, you can pass it."
"That's good, that's good." Li Qiumo seemed to have thought of something, turned to look at Pei Ze, and asked with a smile: "Mr. Pei, where are you working?"
"My family has a small business, and I have a way to make a living." Pei Ze is used to being low-key, so he blurted out naturally.
Li Qiumo thought he was just being modest. How could he marry such a wife without some conditions? How much money and connections would it take to cultivate such a good seedling? Apart from other things, good teachers can't be hired just by having money.
"So what do you think about Zhong Miao applying to Qingmei?"
I have to say that Li Qiumo has considered everything carefully. Although women have a high status in this era, they are still constrained by their families, including their parents-in-law, husbands, and children. It is better for unmarried women, but married women will inevitably be affected by the opinions of their in-laws.
Especially in their line of work, many well-off families look down on it. Chinese painting may be easier to understand, but oil painting was introduced from the West later and currently has limited public recognition.
Moreover, domestic oil paintings are not well recognized in the West and are in a difficult situation as they are just starting out.
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