The Lotus

``The Lotus''. Elle looked at the oil painting in awe. It was the last known work of Xu Jiangxi, the reclusive painter whose known works were highly sought after by the Chinese central government due to the strong portrayal of loyalty and patriotism despite the use of nothing more than simple imagery brought to life by the vividness of the oil medium. But Elle cared nothing of that sort---the awesome she felt had nothing to do with the intangible qualities that the central government had claimed. It was more to do with the way Jiangxi juxtaposed the colours, the brush strokes and even the amount of paint layered atop each other that gave it a sense of realism beyond the mere view of just a pretty picture.

``The Lotus'' wasn't a large piece; almost none of Jiangxi's pieces were large, despite them using oil as the main patining medium. It was a very specialised skill, to make use of regular and tiny brush sizes with oil paints to provide the same sort of quality that larger oil paintings had. But the size of the painting mattered to Elle for only one reason---it made it easy for her to conceal the painting. She was currently in the Carnegie Art Museum, staring at ``The Lotus'' from her point on the ground outside of the regular opening hours of the museum. The Chinese central government had been adamant in getting the painting back, and have exhausted all diplomatic means, but to no avail.

That was when a Chinese agent contacted Elle and offering her the job of bringing ``The Lotus'' back to China.

(Based on an exercise generated by WriteThis - 2014-06-13 23:59:52)