The Versatile Master Artist

Chapter 116 - 90: Mr. Tree Sloth’s Art Criticism (Part 3)

Just like previous art salons, below the title there’s a Keynote (similar to Apple’s PPT) file for fans to download.

The file contains a total of five artworks.

These works were selected by the director of the Taylor Art Gallery from the submissions of podcast fans, pieces he found commendable.

Originally, there were only four paintings, one watercolor and three oil paintings from the submissions.

After Anna decided to add another guest, worried that Detective Cat might not understand these paintings, she specifically added one more sketch, making up a total of five artworks.

The format of this salon revolves around these five artworks, with everyone chatting and sharing their personal views and opinions.

The total duration is about forty minutes.

The post-production of the audio file is not complex. For this type of salon with three guest speakers chatting, it’s just a matter of making a timeline after recording.

The podcast is scheduled to go live next Tuesday, with the recording set for this weekend.

Anna sent Gu Weijing a link to an online meeting room, and calculating the time difference, it should be late night on Friday, Yangon time.

There’s still a week to go,

Gu Weijing has already started his intensive preparations.

First, he needs to adjust his voice.

Online voice modulators for changing male to female voices are easily available.

To be safe, he specifically bought a voice modulator card on Amazon that can be used long-term to adjust the tone and depth of his voice.

After trying it out, he was quite satisfied with the gentle female voice it produced.

Then, there is the preparation of the salon content.

The submissions from fans of high-quality art podcasts are full of hidden talents, including some renowned professional painters.

The artworks that caught the interest of the director of the British Taylor National Art Gallery are all highly accomplished.

Many of these artworks brought a degree of spiritual impact to Gu Weijing during the appreciation process. To have a clear and accurate assessment of these works, some even required him to repeatedly use the Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill.

In recent days, Gu Weijing has almost exhausted all the Free Experience Points he had accumulated, and he looks quite fatigued.

To leave a deep impression on the audience at the art salon, proving Detective Cat and the art critic called Miss Elina,

this is undoubtedly a necessary effort.

His conversation partners are all big names in the art circle.

Mr. Tree Sloth goes without saying, and the other, Mr. Tonks, is the director of the British Taylor National Art Gallery.

The Taylor National Art Gallery is one of the world’s most popular art galleries, located on the East Bank of the Thames River, funded by sugar magnate Tyler Henry, with four branches in Liverpool, Scotland, and other places, making it the UK’s largest private foundation-operated non-National Art Museum.

The A&HCI publication "Taylor Art" mentioned by Uncle Sakai is their affiliated professional journal.

Having the opportunity to converse with such big shots is a rare chance, yet also secretly fraught with crisis.

There’s a classic French proverb that says, a salon can make a scholar famous overnight, or leave an ignoramus infamous for eternity.

In the performing arts circle, there’s the term "overshadowing."

When a young actor plays opposite a seasoned film emperor, sometimes they might find themselves unable to open their mouth more than a few lines, crushed by the other’s aura, either whispering timidly or becoming exaggerated and out of harmony.

This is the crush of acting skills,

resulting in the final program presentation: the better the veteran actor performs, the worse the novice does.

A classic example is in "The Wolf of Wall Street," where even a natural-born actor like Xiaolizi seemed somewhat suppressed by the seasoned film emperor Matthew McConaughey in their scenes together.

Podcasts that are conversational salons are similar, as soon as experts start talking, you know the difference.

The exchange among several experts who have been immersed in the industry for years, the kind of profound collision of thoughts and exhilarating brainstorming, naturally enchants listeners.

However, if there’s an obviously weaker outsider.

While others are discussing lines, colors, and the emotions of a painting, yet you don’t even know which artwork they’re talking about, then viewers will criticize you without reservation.

In an esoteric field like art, this is even more pronounced, professional talents abound among the listeners, and attempting to bluff and muddle through is simply out of the question.

Mr. Tonks might not have been the guest with the highest academic status invited by Mr. Tree Sloth in the past.

But as Detective Cat, I am certainly the painter with the thinnest "resume" to appear on this podcast in the past year.

So thin that even Gu Weijing was a bit surprised that this Mr. Tree Sloth, whom I have never met in person, really agreed to let me be a guest on his podcast.

Many senior fans of the program expressed their incomprehension of Mr. Tree Sloth’s decision below the poster.

"Detective Cat? Who is Detective Cat..."

"An online artist who became quite popular recently, the first ever to be featured on the ’Oil Painting’ magazine. But pairing up to talk with Mr. Tree Sloth seems a bit unqualified."

"That online artist who makes a living drawing anime illustrations? I read the ’The Moon’ report, and the evaluation seemed not too favorable."

"There’s no need to bring up messages from a third-rate publication like ’THE Moon’ here, their words are simply sickening... But actually, to be honest, I’m a bit worried about the quality of this podcast. Detective Cat and the other two guests, they’re not even from the same world, can they even have a conversation?"

"It’s said that the artist Van Doorn questioned the professionalism of the ’Oil Painting’ magazine, claiming that only one of them, he or Detective Cat, should remain. Not sure if this news is true or false. But it seems ’Oil Painting’ has indeed deleted the pages related to Detective Cat. Will this art salon be a chance for Detective Cat to fight back?"

"To fight back, it would be good enough not to embarrass oneself. She’s like a jinx. I heard even Miss Elina from the ’Oil Painting’ magazine got affected. Mr. Tree Sloth shouldn’t have invited him as a guest..."

The professional art circle is small, and rumors spread rapidly.

Very quickly, comments below revealed the grudge between Van Doorn, Anna, and Detective Cat.

That online illustrator who had only been featured in the ’Oil Painting’ magazine for a few weeks—her related pages were discovered to have disappeared again from the ’Oil Painting’ website’s recommendation page a few days ago.

Also vanished from the visual arts section was a new editor with the initials A.E.

Someone @ed Van Doorn with this news.

The response was just a photo of a circus joker, captioned with "There is no such person!"

It was unclear whether he was mocking Anna or Detective Cat, or perhaps implying both were jokers.

Many artists familiar with Van Doorn also forwarded the message.

At least in the eyes of the vast majority of podcast fans, in such a salon program that truly tests one’s aesthetic ability, Detective Cat remains nothing more than an inconsequential joke.