Year of the Dragon

As Lunar New Year comes to a close I think of a recent painting. My mother loves dragons. She isn’t a dragon but she collects them. In December she came to visit and brought me some objects that she hoped I would include in a painting. She picked up the auspicious pair of goldfish on a trip.  Perhaps she was thinking of Matisse or that she and my father were both fish. For colour and as a nod to the new year I made a short stack of divine fruit, persimmons. I plucked a pink gerbera from a bouquet and placed it in another gift she brought, the vase with some more goldfish. The two parakeets were part of a series of wallpaper that I have loved incorporating in my set ups. She had two of those too, but they talked, they were her pets as a child.

Swimming in Divine Fruit, egg tempera on panel, 22 x 22 cm, February 2024

The dove wallpaper is built from layers of graphite and egg yolk.  The vase is lamp black. I learned a lot painting this one and how wonderful it is to assemble objects carried across the Atlantic and pair them with things that I find here.  The painting has been framed and is going to my mother for a significant birthday.

Hakata dolls in 17th-century Hakata were made as offerings at Buddhist temples. The Chinese word for goldfish means gold and jade, affluence. Goldfish are an auspicious sign. Persimmons bring good luck and longevity and are a nod to Lunar New Year.  They are also the divine fruit of autumn. Gerbera’s grace expresses admiration. Two birds sitting together typically symbolize peace, fidelity and love and the green parakeet symbolises good luck. In China the pomegranate symbolises fertility, abundance, posterity, and a blessed future.