From the Peony I took a picture of in my garden I painted this yesterday. I read that the Peony is China's national flower. It is the symbol of good fortune, high honor and the spring season... all good things. As an erotic symbol it symbolizes the female genitalia. When dew, representing semen, drops on a peony flower it opens... REALLY! Well, that produced all kinds of images in my head. I painted on an orange colored washi paper I've had laying around the house for years. When I was younger I hated the color orange but I like it now, it's a powerful color to work with. In the style of American modernists Georgia O'Keefe and Arthur Dove who also used nature as sexual symbolism, for me this symbolizes the female life force.

Peony Opening 96 x 66 cm (38 x 26 inches) Sumi ink, Gouache and Acrylic on Orange Washi

Tags: peony,flower,japan,painting,washi