Peony

Had a chance encounter with some peonies earlier this summer.  As I was contemplating on how to paint these flowers, I couldn't help but be reminded of the deeply rooted traditions of painting peony.

Peony is dubbed the "King" of flowers in China and is symbolic for wealth and riches.  There must be a million books on "How To Paint Peony" and most of them are pretty intense and rigid.  They would show us how to load our brush with crimson and white such that each stroke creates a 2 toned swath of inviting curvatures.  Some of them would tutor us on how to roll and dab our brush to achieve the scalloped edges of the flower petals.  Perhaps because of the symbolism, the peony is always portrayed in a  rather regal setting, with vivid and vibrant color and a perfect arrangement of leaves.  Some of the Gonbi style peony would even summon the help of gold lined petals to epitomize riches.
These doctrines can be so stubborn that one of my friend who painted a beautiful Gonbi peony was lectured by an ostensible  peony expert for daring to paint a gentian colored peony with no stamens.  This expert gained his knowledge from his master, who resided in Luoyang ( commonly accepted as the Home of Peony) and therefore unabashedly exerted his inflexible view of what a peony painting should look like.  Here the pundit allowed no room for artistic interpretation or deviation from tradition.  I would be remiss not to  point out that Double Peony possesses no stamens because they have transformed into petals.  There you have it!

So what does all that have to do with my peony painting? 

 

Well I just wanted to try something different.  Something devoid of traditional constraints and rendering.  I was trying for the how I interpretate the plant rather than a sanctimonious attempt at regurgitating what a Chinese painting on peony should look like.

I used to think Xieyi is about jazzing up something.  I realize now that it is about finding something in all that jazz.