Pink was first used as a colour name in the late 17th century. According to surveys conducted in Europe and the United States, pink is the colour most often associated with charm, politeness, sensitivity, tenderness, softness, childhood, femininity and romance. It is associated with chastity and innocence when combined with white, but with eroticism and seduction when combined with violet or black.
Costa Dvorezky (russian), born in 1968.
Named after the flower of the same name, pink is a vibrant, delicate colour that borders on red. An emblem of femininity, a symbol of childhood, associated with happiness and optimism, pink is a popular colour that has made a real comeback in recent years. Whether in fashion, decoration or design, the colour pink is now ubiquitous.
Irène Sheri.
Haruyo Morita, “Hana akari (flower light)”
Denis Perrin.
Frank Ayroles, illustrator.
“Camellia and rice birds”, 1929, by the Japanese painter Ohara Koson (1877-1945), woodblock print – 36.2 x 24 cm
Toledo Museum (Spain). Specialist in nature scenes.
Frida Kahlo, “Self-portrait on the border between Mexico and the United States”.
“Raphael, Kara boy with pink desert rose” (circa 2020) by New Zealand photographer Giovanna Aryafara.
Giovanna Aryafara continues her love of photography and people from diverse communities by capturing them in their natural environment and telling their stories without words. This is one of the stunning images she has captured of the Kara people, an ethnic group inhabiting South Sudan and the Central African Republic .
She was inspired by the Kara’s connection with nature, expressed through their body art. Using natural clay from the river , they make a paste of different colours and apply it as body paint in a very artistic way, combining flowers, plants, berries and pods of seasonal and exotic seeds, and other natural elements, a practice they have carried. out for hundreds of years.
“Early morning light, this young boy from Kara spoke to me so softly and was so proud of his nature art form,” she says.
“Prairie in bloom” 1905. Acid-etched and enamelled vase from DAUM Frères (Nancy).
Country flowers enhanced with polychrome enamels in a landscape of trees and mountains with a river.
The design is painted in grisaille on a frosted background speckled with pink powder.
The neck of the vase is surrounded by gold.
Gioacchino Passini (1956-) is an Italian painter.
He takes many weeks to complete each oil painting of his beautiful flowers. Not only does he paint them at their peak, he also shows them as they decompose.
“La douleur est lourde”, 2023, digital illustration by Carla Petelski.
Carla Petelski is a contemporary Belgian illustrator and printmaker who works all over the world. She is based in Vienna. Her work is graphic, colourful and dreamy, using bright colours and playful shapes.
“I draw through my poetry. I write and then I draw, or I draw and then I write. I’m drawn to certain ideas and values that are reflected in my work.
I like to draw and represent ‘femininity’ in its natural being and how I interpret it, not through norms but through feelings. I like to visualise and create femininity through the power of colour and its vibrations.
I create human forms by asking the question of gender, I draw feminine men and masculine women. Colour is a key element in my creative expression.
Through colour, you can feel cold loneliness or human warmth.”
“Flower Wind”, 2016, by Taguchi Yuka, contemporary Japanese artist (born in 1992 – Gifu prefecture, Japan), mineral pigments on silk.
“The Daughters of Paul Durand-Ruel” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Impressionist (1841-1919), oil on canvas – 81 x 65 cm, (1882), Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia – USA.
In August 1882, Renoir painted the portrait of his art dealer’s two daughters, Marie-Thérèse and Jeanne, at the latter’s request.
The painter strove to bring the natural light to bear on their young faces, so that the figures would blend in better with the surrounding landscape.
José Basso (1949-), chilean painter
Françoise de Felice, watercolourist, France.
From her personal abstracts, which could be enough in themselves, she brings out the women who emerge from a past. She travels through time and creates her own mythology. We find echoes of all the Western eras. Some Tiépolo roses, Vermeer lights, Renaissance faces and recently some old black and white photos. She also uses gold leaf and watercolour.
“Hanako” by Haruyo Morita, japanese painter born in 1945.
Leonardo Cremonini , (1925-), Italy
Leonardo Cremonini was born on 26 November 1925 in Bologna, Italy. He studied at the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts and at the end of the war, in 1945, he moved to Milan where he attended the Brera Academy and met important figures on the Italian cultural scene.
” Peach blossoms and small birds” by the japanese painter Ito Jakuchu, (1716-1800).
A painter who lived in Kyoto, producing works on the themes of animals and flowers.
His dazzling realistic style tends towards Expressionism, and he remains a special case in Japanese painting.
Harada Taizi (born 1940), “Fleurs de pêche” 1984, representing Ichinomiya in Yamanashi prefecture.
” Paris in spring”, Ryo Takemasa
“Lanterns with cherry blossoms, rain at Ueno” by Kiyoharu (Ginnosuke) Yokouchi, (Japanese artist 1870-1942), woodblock, 25 x 38 cm, (1910-1930), private collection.
Georges Picard, “Romance under the Blossom Tree”.
“The first kiss is the link between the silence of feelings and their melody.
The first kiss is the link between the darkness of the past and the brightness of the future.
The first kiss is the first drop in the cup filled with the nectar of life”.
Khalil Gibran
“Shelter” by Myriam Tillson.
Someone dies,
And it’s like footsteps
That stop.
But if it were a start
For a new journey…
Someone dies,
And it’s like a door
Slamming shut.
But if it were a passage
Opening onto other landscapes…
Someone dies,
And it’s like a tree
That falls.
But if it were a seed
Sprouting in new soil…
Someone dies,
And it’s like a silence
That screams.
But if he helped us to hear
The fragile music of life….
Khalil Gibran
Fan Tchunpi (Fang Junbi), 1898-1986, Peach Blossoms, Beijing, signed in Chinese (lower left) hanging scroll, ink and colours on paper, 59 x 39.5 cm.
Fan was admitted to the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris in 1920, becoming the first Chinese student ever to be accepted.
Painted in 1973, Peach Blossoms, Beijing embodies a unison of Chinese and Western philosophies.
The blossoming peach blossoms testify to the artist’s love for her homeland, while the tiled roofs of old houses evoke the atmosphere of everyday Chinese life.
But the artist drew inspiration from the colouring techniques of Western paintings to create delicate, changing textures.
The blossoming flowers and courtyard houses of Beijing resonate with a humanist spirit that embraces both Eastern and Western sensibilities.
Pierre Joseph Redouté, “Pink Roses in a Vase”, 1838, watercolour and gouache on velvet, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
A pink diamond by Jeff Koons.
The orchid-shaped villa is a combination of architecture inspired by nature. Architect: Thilina Liyanage.
Like almost all of Liyanage’s creations, the villa is made using folded pieces of bamboo, assembled together to form the shape of an orchid. The bamboo is then covered with a translucent fabric that allows each column of bamboo to be seen, like the veins of the flower’s petals. A clever use of light allows the flower to change colour, adding a unique aesthetic to the overall architecture, and making it as beautiful at night as it is during the day!
Jessica Durrant, american illustrator
Arstan Dukuev, “Sunny day”, (2022), born in 1993 in Och (Kirghizistan).
Haruyo Morita
Giovanni Boldini, “The Lady in Pink or Portrait of Olivia de Subercaseaux Concha”, 1916, oil on canvas, Giovanni Boldini Museum, Ferrara.
Medusa, from the Lac Rose series (2019) by French photographer Charlotte Lapalus, born in 1987.
The woman pictured is Senegalese model Alima Diop.
Charlotte Lapalus is known for her interest in depicting the lives of women and for her intimate portraits of her subjects in the soft, warm tones that have become emblematic of her style. This photo, taken in Senegal, is an ode to the African women who live off the pink waters of Lake Retba, depicting both their sensitivity and their strength.
The salt content of Lake Retba, or Lac Rose as it is known locally, rivals that of the Dead Sea, exceeding 40% salinity in some parts. The salt is collected by thousands of men and women who work many hours a day, protecting their skin with shea butter to help prevent tissue damage. Salt is used by Senegalese fishermen to preserve fish, an ingredient in many traditional recipes.
The lake gets its pink hue from salt-loving micro-algae that produce red pigments to help them absorb sunlight.
“Cherry blossom in Toshogu”, Shiro Kasamatsu, 1935.
Edgar Degas, “Les Danseuses en rose”, ca. 1880, oil on canvas, Farmington, Hill-Stead Museum, USA ©Wikimedia Commons
“Dots obsession”, an installation by Yayoi Kusama, in the Great Hall of La Villette.
Painting by Erik Madigan Heck
“We are in the world
and we walk on hell
looking at the flowers”.
Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)
Frederick Carl Frieseke, Portrait of Madame Gely, circa 1907, oil on canvas
Véronica Collignon
Claude Monet, “Houses in the Snow”, Norway, 1895, private collection
Tito Merello Vilar, Spanish architect and illustrator
Jean-Léon Gérôme, “Bashi-Bazouk”, 1868-1869, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Henri-Edmond Cross, “Le Nuage rose“, vers 1896, huile sur toile, The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Raphael, “The Madonna Alba”, ca. 1510, oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington
“Boucle Ca 1900”, (gold, garnets, pearls, opal), by Edward Colonna, exhibited at the 1900 Paris World Fair.
“Pond izumi peony, Yushien garden”, Japan, photo by Kunihito Oshtsubo.
The volcanic soil of Daikonshima, in the middle of Lake Nakaumi in Matsue (Shimane Prefecture), Japan, is ideal for the delicate cultivation of peonies and ginseng.
The lush Yûshien garden, open since 1975, showcases peonies of world-renowned quality all year round.
The garden is home to over 250 varieties of peony, flowering at different times of the year (spring and winter).
Every year, between the end of April and the beginning of May, during the ‘Golden Week’ festival, tens of thousands of peonies are placed by hand on the surface of the pond, and this wonderful carpet of flowers lasts for just one week.
@kunihito_oshtsubo ©
Robert Julius Beyschlag (1838-1903)
In April, when the year renews itself,
The dawn does not come so fresh from the sea :
Nor out of the waves the goddess of love
Did not come to Cypre in her beautiful conch,
As I saw the beauty I call
My holy star, awake in the morning,
The sky laughing, the earth enamelled,
And the loves fly around her.
Love, Youth, and the Graces that are
Daughters of heaven hung on her brow:
But what more redoubled my service,
Was that she had an artless face.
An ugly woman is beautiful with artifice,
A beautiful woman is beautiful without make-up.
Pierre Ronsard
WU HE PING
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, “The Roses of Heliogabalus”, 1888, oil on canvas, Collection Juan Antonio Perez Simon, Mexico City
“Avatar 3”, 2015 – photo by Carolina Mizrahi, photographer and art director, born in 1982 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil who lives and works in London, UK.
One of the main themes of her work is colour. “I think you can say a lot through colour. It’s a powerful communication tool, especially when aligned with other visual signs. I like to play with the different meanings associated with each colour”.
Olga Suvurova was born in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) in 1966 and studied monumental composition at the renowned Repin Institute of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg. She was influenced by her parents, Igor and Natalya, two acclaimed artists in St Petersburg. Other influences include Gustav Klimt, Piero della Francesca and traditional Russian icons. She also paints portraits and landscapes. Olga has exhibited in Italy, Germany, Sweden, Finland, France, Great Britain, Ireland, China and the United States, where her work is in numerous collections.
“La petite Floride”, François Foucras, contemporary French artist.
Auguste Toulmouche, “Portrait of Rose Caron”, 1886, oil on canvas, Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris CC0 Paris Musées/Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris.
Véronica Collignon
Pablo Picasso, (1881-1973), “Maternity”, 1905
Soutome Kaori (Japan), “Wind of the Four Season, Spring”.
This Japanese artist was born in 1981 in the prefecture of Tochigi (north of Tokyo).
The themes of her works are mainly inspired by the four traditional Japanese seasons, and she includes plants and insects, including butterflies, in her compositions.
The perfect garden of her imagination abounds in colourful flowers, allowing her to observe the changes throughout the year.
Her works are part of the Japanese style of painting known as ‘Nihonga’, in which the artist incorporates mineral pigments, gold leaf and silk to create an aesthetic quality that combines ancestral and modern techniques with incomparable subtlety.
“The Pink Dress ~ After the Bath”, by Joaquin Sorolla y Batisda, Spanish painter, (1863-1923), oil on canvas (1916), Sorolla Museum Foundation, Madrid, Spain.
A work of maturity, this painting justifies the artist’s nickname “painter of light”.
This oil painting is painted with large, decisive brushstrokes, embellished with small touches that, in their momentum, seem to want to pursue the fleeting moment of light.
The physical power and naturalness of the figures convey the painter’s optimism and confidence in the “little people” as the driving force behind the progress and renewal of his country.
Although Joaquín Sorolla did not fully embrace this pictorial technique, he was nonetheless considered the Spanish Impressionist.
In fact, he ranks among the Luminists.
As a landscape painter, portraitist and creator of genre scenes, his works are treated as studies in the contrast between light and shadow.
He is, in essence, a painter of the joys of life, where everything is light and reflection.
Nigel Van Wieck , “Realism and melancholy”.
Considered the Edward Hopper of the 21st century, Nigel van Wieck is a British figurative painter and pastellist who defines himself as a painter of contemporary solitude.
After studying in Europe and learning about the work and style of the great masters, he emigrated to New York in 1979, where he settled permanently.
Heavily influenced by contemporary American realists, his paintings evoke social life in everyday settings and depict feelings of solitude and melancholy with the naturalness and sincerity of the moment.
His small-format oils in sumptuous colours offer a glimpse of classic America.
Although he lacks the oppressive sadness of Hopper, there is a certain melancholy mixed with an underlying sexuality.
“I lived in four mansions in New York, three of which had incredible views with ever-changing skies.
Only my first residence denied me paradise; the view was dominated by the windows of the others.
But for a painter it was just as precious and I made good use of it.”
“Our life”, Stephan Schmitz – illustrator
Luiz Carlos Carrera, brazilian painter, born in 1959.
Andhika Ramadhian, indonesian, born in 1996.
François Baudouin, Manufacture de Sèvres, Assiette creuse à fond rose, 1775, ceramic, soft porcelain, enamel, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris CC0 Paris Musées/Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.
LOUI JOVER, (born in 1967 in Serbia).
Having moved to Australia at a very young age, where he has lived ever since, this contemporary artist is known for his works mixing Indian ink painting and collages on the pages of old books or sheets of newspapers.
His ink washes on old surfaces are melancholy and nostalgic, and the fragility that emanates from his characters is reinforced by his Indian ink technique.
He works in small segments, which allows him to channel his emotion more effectively and create an elegant aesthetic.
The most striking works by this creative artist, done in pen and dripping Indian ink, most often reveal women’s faces, but also romantic scenes.
His desire for authenticity and simplicity reveals a great fragility that is echoed in the media he uses (old books or newspapers), which are destined to be destroyed.
Influenced by Picasso, Loui Jover also makes collages, sculptures, paintings and drawings.
He is currently working on collages of scraps of paper cut from old colour magazines, mixing them with his Indian ink technique.
He is one of those creative artists who combine aesthetics with the logic of a story.
Loui Jover pursues his career in Queensland and his work is distributed on the internet, giving a second digital life to his artistic creations.