Saturday, January 21, 2012

Tangerine, Ceramic Pot, and Grape

oil on linen on panel / 6x6"/ unframed / sold

How your painting will look framed:

Painting Tangerine, Ceramic Pot and Grape brought back many memories of the Chinese New Year celebrations with my family as a child in our one room home in the back of a Chinese laundry in New York City. Searching for the perfect tangerine to paint reminded me of my mom carefully sorting through the tangerine displays in Chinatown to find the golden orange ones with leaves. Displays of oranges or tangerines in bowls dotted our humble home. Based on Chinese tradition, oranges are symbolic of wealth, and tangerines represent good luck. The tangerine with leaves topped each of my mom's tangerine displays for the new year.

The leaf on tangerine is almost the same value (the lightness or darkness of a color) as the orange reflection of the tangerine in the ceramic pot. To help the leaf come forward, I painted the curled up edges a lighter value and gave it crisp edges.

May I suggest that you complement the viewing of Tangerine, Ceramic Pot, and Grape with my recipe for teedoys, a special treat for the Chinese New Year-the Year of the Dragon, 4710.



2 comments:

Alisa Blatter said...

Mee-Li, I particularly love this painting, and reading your words about it is such a pleasure. Happy New Year!!!

Azra said...

I was instantly impressed with your work Meeli! The texture and highlights make your paintings shine!