Peony 1956

Qi Baishi made this flower using ink and colour on paper. The juicy reds of the bloom draw my eye. It's so alive, isn't it? I imagine Baishi dabbing at the paper, coaxing the peony into being. There's a push and pull between control and chance, you know? The petals bleed into each other, losing any hard edge. But that's what makes them so soft and inviting. I wonder if he mixed the colours right there, on the page? And then, the leaves. Those blues, so cool and deliberate, contrasting with the warm reds. It's like a little conversation happening right before our eyes. It reminds me a bit of Helen Frankenthaler's soak-stain paintings, how she let the paint become one with the canvas. There's a certain freedom there, a trust in the materials themselves. We are always in conversation with artists from all eras.