February loves you

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year!

This is a day for celebration so I am sharing with you another simple sketch and calligraphy work. Don’t forget, February loves you! This is also the Valentine’s month so don’t forget to embrace your life and loved ones.

Create and enjoy a charmed and authentic life! [“The Fish” – Artwork in pastel by Anna Suarin]

I checked the direct translation of Gong Xi Fa Cai and found out that it means “Wishing you to be prosperous in the coming year” (Translation by Goodcharacters.com). And so, this is my wish and prayer for you, my dear readers. May this year be another year of blessings, inspirations, good health, and strength of spirit!

As I have shared in my first post for this year, I will do my best to create little art works at least once a month. And I hope, this will inspire you, too.

This is one among a few of my works in pastels. I have an ambivalent relationship with pastels. Sometimes I like it, sometimes not. It’s quite tricky to use although the colors and texture are beautiful. (Side note: I also checked my stash of inks and realized that I need to practice more calligraphy because the first batch of ink that I had purchased is now beginning to dry up!)

For this month, I am sharing this painting of a fish, a co-creature that reminds us of grit, determination, and patience. As a young child and during summer breaks in the province, I remember waking up at dawn to go to the aplaya (beach) to wait for the fisherfolks as they come back from an evening’s work out there at sea. Those mornings left indelible memories of the lives, hard work, and courage of our fisherfolks. It was then that I began imagining a career in development work.

Life was so simple then. By the breaking of dawn, we’d eventually begin walking home, happy with our fresh catch. These are among the sweetest memories of my childhood. When I began to draw and paint, fish became a favorite subject. Serendipitously, later, I learned that in Chinese culture, a fish symbolizes abundance, wealth, success and contentment. Written in 鱼/魚 (yú) in the Mandarin Hanzi, its sound is similar to the word that means surplus, chōngyù (充裕) [Art of the Brush, n.d.; Chinaculturepro, n.d.]. Beautiful, isn’t it?

When you read this, I hope you will be inspired and be reminded again about nature’s gifts and abundance. May you take a pause today and find absolute joy in the present moment.

Thank you for dropping by. Enjoy your life as you also bless others!

REFERENCES

Art of the Brush. The symbolic meaning of fish in Asian brush painting. https://www.artofthebrush.ie/the-symbolic-meaning-of-fish-in-asi

Chinaculturepro. [n.d.]. Fish Symbolism in Chinese Culture: Meanings and Art.
https://www.chinaculturepro.com/fish-symbolism-chinese-culture/

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