Birds and Flowers from Paradise

Watercolour Paintings

According to my opinion, Paradise exists only within our heads. Hell too. I say “only” even if I think that the best and the worst which can happen to a human being is to have Paradise or Hell in his own head. Anyway, I called this blog post “Birds and Flowers from Paradise”, because I simply invented these birds and flowers. And they appeared from my fantasy in a moment when I felt happy…

To have Paradise in one’s own head can take many forms. To me it often translates in colours, mainly warm colours -reds, oranges, yellows – and an irresistible need to freely spread them on the paper. With some stains of greens and blues among them, for the contrast. In the above painting the bird could be a blackbird; as I painted it, I felt the urge to put some black among the vibrant colours, and this is how the bird’s head suddenly appeared. Perhaps was it to be remembered, at least unconsciously, that even in the middle of Paradise, Hell is never far away. As to the flower, one could think first of a tulip, but honestly: doesn’t it look much more like a strawberry? Yes, there are not only apples in Paradise!

The above painting was in fact the first I painted during that recent ascension to Paradise. There were three of them, the three I present in this blog. This one is softer, less violent than the one at the top of the post, with more pastel colours and less contrasts. Probably was I in the middle of the ascension process still, not having arrived yet, and life was all peace. Because if you think that Paradise itself is a haven of peace, well, it isn’t! It is as violent as Hell, just in a positive sense…

This last one was the second I painted, the arrival to Paradise probably, full of surprises and wonders. The flower looks like some kind of thistle, I would say. By the way, concerning thistles: I just read that it was one of the favourite plants of one my famous compatriots, Théophile Gautier, French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic . When I say compatriot, he is more than that: Théophile Gautier was born in the same town as me, Tarbes, in the French Pyrenees, and, as a child, I even went to a school bearing his name. Thanks to my new electronic book, I have now easy access to French books and I have rediscovered that author, reading his delicious and very instructive book “Travel to Spain”. There he says that his favourite plants are thistles and palm trees. I don’t believe though that he would have loved my painted thistle, judging by the paintings he describes and loves. In those days – XIXth century- one loved more detailed and more realistic paintings. I suppose. But I would have been curious to see his reaction in front of these kind of free watercolours and read what he has to say about it, as I really enjoyed his paintings descriptions of the Spanish and other masters (Goya, El Greco, etc). Well, I’d better stop now, because if I start thinking of what isn’t possible any more in my life, I will rapidly end up in a breathtakingly steep descent to Hell, and this post here is only about Paradise..

The birds paintings presented in this gallery are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards, in my FAA Gallery. Please press the link below to access it.

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The Giclee prints from the above mentioned Online shop are manufactured in the USA and sent directly to the client from there. For personal or financial reasons it might not be appropriate for everybody to order their prints in the USA. Also, you might prefer to purchase my Giclee prints hand-signed. If so, you can alternatively order directly from me. Simply contact me indicating which painting you are interested in and in which size. Go to Goodaboom Boutique to see a guideline of pricing for different dimensions.