Let me take you through the meaning behind "Delicate Beauty"!
I always love varied textures within a painting so portrayed differening textures throughout the piece including her hair, hair peace, kimono and the tea. One day I will go to Japan for the cherry blossom...🌸 🌸
Whilst painting "Delicate Beauty", I ended up doing a bit of reading around Geisha, their traditions and customs. I initially thought about how Geisha are women formed in a man's world and their submissive nature is a result of that. However, fun fact - geisha were initially men, as women weren't allowed to perform. It is now predominantly a women's world, women who train in a variety of arts and disciplines from a young age. For this, I wanted the geisha to be content in her activity, not forced or submissive, but an artist.
Her hair and the different colours were decided to celebrate spring - the cherry blossom, sage green, gold and also the bright welcoming colour of the kimono.
Nowadays, with slavery illegal, fewer children are sold into the role (I'm not sure I can say none as I haven't looked at figures on it!). It is a pure celebration of culture, respect and peace.
Whilst painting the tea ceremony scene, I included the Japanese art of Kintsugi. The repair of broken ceramics with gold (or silver) lacquer is such a wonderful method, and also metaphor for letting the light into our scars and not hiding them. Something broken can become something more beautiful, I wanted to bring that into the scene as well.
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