That is not even an attempt at complimenting.
Some people don`t know what they are talking about and pretend they do. Did you know that Walt Disney, before making.... well...Disney was fired by a newspaper because he "wasnt creative enough".
In your place i would take his opinion with a grain of salt. Artist grow and art can be improved. Also, art has so many definitions that he may just have a strong bias against your art style (or in some case, just be envious). If someone doesn`t say how something can be improved or is incapable to point out what are the flaws, then he is that is not advice, is just cynism.
Long ago, i once went to a gym with my mom. And the owner was a woman known by my mother. She was teaching me how to use the machines. She had some bad experiences with men, so i understood were she came from, but it was still incredibly awkward when she said "you are incredibly smart and good at following instructions for a man". I didn`t took it personally, but i undestand how frustrating it can be for people to receive those kind of comments more constantly.
As a rule of thumb, if someone says "you`re pretty good at X for a "Y", they are implicitly implying group Y is inferior at X (either intentionally or accidentally)