(I've been working on another project--so I'm posting an older work.) This is Quan Yin a legendary Goddess of Mercy. A legend is, in a way, a stylized story. It has been repeated and honed over the years. But I've noticed we are all interested in stories, and the stories behind things. (like the prevelence of DVD extras--even if some survey I took claims that watching them counts towards being a geek.)So here's the story behind my painting. It is the ink resist version of a sketch I did while traveling. In 1992 I participated in Semester at Sea. One of the countries I visited was Taiwan. I took a trip to the National Palace Museum where I saw a beautiful carving of Quan Yin. Back on the ship I did a watercolor sketch related to the carving.
Also in Taiwan, some friends and I went to Lion's Head Mountain where we encountered a statue garden that was full of identical Quan Yins. Opening our umbrellas, and posing with one hand up in the gesture of mercy and the other pouring the waters of life from our water bottles, we had another friend photograph us.
So that's my legendary encounter with Quan Yin.
11 comments:
Beautiful illustration and great post!
OMG I am so lucky to actually have one of these Heather, you sent it to me a few years back. So glad to see it on the site!
Oh, such beautiful work! I love al of it! Especially the line work!
Both of these are great! I love the flowers floating around her.
This is really lovely! GOrgeous work.
Thank you for bringing to us the lovely Quan Yin. You really captured her beauty.
That is such a beautiful piece!
Just beautiful!
Really beautiful! And it was great to learn the background story and see your sketch. The dragon especially is quite amazing!
PS. I like to watch the extras on DVDs too! :-)
Heavenly! I really love the black background, too. Reminds me of beautiful black lacquer furniture, so prevalent in Asia. Don't you just love it when you come across a scene that takes your breath away and inspires you? Aaaah.
oh i love this - and also love the photo with the statues - you're lucky to have had a semester at sea - looks like you are still inspired by it
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