THE PEONY
This tree peony is large and dramatic. --1.5 metres across and 1.2metres high. The colours are strong and jewel like, criss crossed by gold Moorish trellis.
The peony features often in both Japanese and Chinese design. In this picture Ive included a kimono and parasol with peony motifs, stylized peony discs and a Persian minature. I couldnt resist including a fragment of John Russell's Peonies which featured in the NGV exhibition of Australian Impressionists.
This is my latest work towards my exhibition later in the year.
It has been a while in the making and has had a somewhat organic journey as my ideas have changed as I've been making the picture. My original plan was to paint something dramatic. ---a pale rose against a dark, possibly black, background. This was to avoid an "old lady" sentimental picture, which is a danger when one attempts a rose. But as the rose grew on the canvas I rather liked the delicate feel of the pastel colours and stayed with them. After all there are many more dramatic pics to come, including the PEONY which is underway right now.
The background references are ---an Elizabethan woodcut of a gardener smelling a bloom.
---a medieval herbal.
---a piece of William Morris wallpaper called Briar Rose which (hopefully) looks as if the background is being peeled away to reveal thewallpaper underneath.
This little painting(20 x 25 cms) was meant to be part of the background of TIGER LILY AND BLUE BUTTERFLIES but I felt it would make that background too complicated so here it is as a work to stand alone.
Perhaps a tiger would have seemed more appropriate but tiger lilies are spotted hence the leopard, though I so love the animals that are from the Royal Apartments in Montreale, Palermo, that I intend to paint more of them for the exhibition.
Here goes with my second entry for my exhibition THE ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES. This picture is more whimsical. As I said in my last blog the background of these pictures is to have references to the history of the bloom depicted. Not so here... It was my intention to play with the idea of tiger lilies against a background of mosaic tigers from the Royal Apartments in Montreale, Sicily. However I got to thinking tiger lilies are spotted , not striped, so I've done the charming mosaic animals as separate pictures.----more to come in my next blog---- meanwhile....
