Heavy Weight Birds and Flowers

The two paintings today, lotus flowers and birds in Gong Pi style, and roses in One-stroke style, are drawn on Strathmore Water Color cold press 300 series paper (9" x 12", 300 g/sq.m), a so-called heavy weight paper. They dry considerably faster and do not wrinkle, thus making framing easy. I have some empty picture frames lying around and just might frame these paintings up.

Roses in One Stroke and in Rare Color

A rose painted ala one stroke, may seem less magnificent compared to the previous renditions of Gong Pi style, but it sure consumes much less time to draw.

For the second rose painted ala Gong Pi, Hubby has suggested the purple color, which is a rare color (even unnatural?) for rose, definitely by no means as common as lavender and orchid. Nor does purple rose enjoy a niche in the spectrum of rose color associated with love. If one were to fall back on the meaning of color by itself, then "Purple is royalty. A mysterious color, purple is associated with both nobility and spirituality." So perhaps, that can be what a purple rose symbolizes.

Rose as the Symbol of Love: Enduring Passion and Friendship

A rose proclaims, "I Love You". But the nature of the love differs based on color, red being the romantic kind while yellow celebrating friendship. So be aware if you are sending it as an expression of your intentions. Here I would like to dedicate the red rose to my loved one and yellow, to all of my friends. Both are essential ingredients of a fulfilling life.

The Richness of China Rose

For the rose painting series I started several blogs ago, I have been using a Chinese painting guidebook bought online here. It's entitled How To Draw Peony and China Rose, the second in the Entry series on The Technique of Chinese Painting published by Art Book Co. Ltd, Taiwan in 2005 (see book cover on right), and is one of the best investment I have ever made. The first edition appeared in 1991 and its 71 pages are filled with lucid instructions with excellent explanation on the uniqueness and the distillation of simplicity from complexity that peony and rose appear to the naked eye and their uncanny interpretation on canvas. The roses then have been painted starting from line sketches of a selected scene that projects a tight collection and yet evinces logical arrangement to avoid taking in everything that would only result in clutteredness. This is then followed by coloring in using Chinese brush comprising layered hues of either the dense or dilute forms, or even mixed, to bring out the magnificence of color blend that is the hallmark of the Gong Pi style. The following two paintings follow in the same tradition.

A Rose by any other name ...

Or in different stages of growth such as transitioning from a flower bud to a full bloom, or reaching maturity, a ripeness that butterflies find it hard to resist, is still a rose.

The Color Spectrum Ala Roses

Continuing from yesterday's inaugural blog on the Rose series, the first two rose paintings complete the array of special meanings revolving around the theme of Love that each rose color symbolizes, literally roses among the thorns.

Red: Love, passion, resepct, courage

Cream: Thoughtfulness, charm, graciousness

Roses are red, my love ...

That's the beginning part of the lyrics of a popular song, rose being the ubiquitous symbol for love. But here the roses are more than red, and are from China too (Rosa chinensis). How did I know that? Well, I was piqued by its name in Chinese, which appears in the Chinese painting guidebook that I'm using and which translates literally into monthly season, and not the usual Chinese name associated with rose. And I got the above answer from Wikipedia.


Yellow: joy, friendship, freedom

White: innocence, purity, secrecy, reverence

Pink: happiness, gratitude, appreciation, admiration

Orange: admiration, fascination, enthusiasm, desire