Crane Wife - Original 65x92cm

Crane Wife is based on a Japanese legend when a poor fisherman finds an injured crane on his doorstep he takes her in and takes care of her nursing her back to health. She rewards him with riches weaving deep brocades from each of her feathers but he becomes greedy and tries to discover her secret. This has the inevitable result in her leaving him and vanishing forever.
 
Each of these Shamanic pieces take several hours and a great deal of skill in the use of watercolour, I don't use masking fluid to make the white lines between each colour and in the case of the Crane Wife I decided to use her form to make the shape of some of the beautiful muted colours of the traditional kimono worn by the Geisha in Japan. The word for crane in Japanese is Tsuru, and cranes are thought to bring fortune and long life.

watercolour
Black frame with gold interior