"An artist's work is the flower of their life.
It grants a persistent and tranquil existence to a moment captured from the fleeting passage of time.
Every artist bears the imprint of their era.
The greatest artists are those with the deepest imprints.
They see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wildflower."
**
Gouache paints.
A brush filled with opaque watercolors mixed with gum arabic dances over 300g heavy-duty paper.
A symphony of colors fills the circles drawn with a pencil on the inverted ceramic cup.
In a dark bedroom corner, an old man coughs while painting, muttering,
"My youth was arduous. Just when white hope seemed to dawn, I was suddenly thrown into pitch darkness, and the road I thought led to success ended abruptly at a cliff."
The old man fills the circles with flowers and tree vines.
Lost in the magic and colors emanating from his hands, I stand mesmerized.
How can it be so beautiful?
It's hard to capture the sorrow in a human's heart or the scent of a flower.
Yet, the flowers in the old man's painting seem to emit a profound fragrance.
How does he paint like this?
But I dared not ask.
A street artist like me couldn't disrupt this historic moment in art.
The old man with glasses glances at me through them and smiles.
I wonder if this surreal scene is my imagination, a fantasy, or some kind of lucid dream borne of deep longing.
The old man in front of me says,
"Try mixing a bit of Delo Blue and Van Dyke Brown."
Indeed.
The old man painting in front of me is...
Alphonse Mucha, the Czech national painter who died on July 14, 1939.
How have I come to meet a legendary artist who has already become a star?
Hey everyone, glad that this novel caught your attention! The Mysterious Art Museum is about how a street artist who went around making portraits of people on street for quick money encounters a weird art gallery where he gets to experience famous historical artists' way of living and painting, which shapes him to become a great painter himself. Join him on this journey!
I'm using ChatGPT and then editing it myself and will give my best to make it a good reading experience for you all.
Release frequency would be alternate days (for now).
Bonus chapters upon reaching milestones on Kofi, and also for every 5 reviews until 20 reviews and every 25 ratings upto 100 ratings on NU! It will help others find this novel.
Advance chapters will be soon on Kofi page.
Happy Reading!