Blue morning glories. Painted with ink and watercolours on Japanese handmade washi paper.
 
Morning glories are a popular subject in Japanese art, they symbolise innocence and love, thanks to their heart-shaped leaves and trumpet-shaped flowers. "Asagao" (morning glories in Japanese) are known to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Historically, morning glories were known in Japan as a medicinal plant. However, during Edo period, a mutation of the plant brought about unusual beautiful variations and morning glories exploded in popularity. Japanese botanical flower books contain numerous illustrations of flower variations. They became so fashionable that at some point morning glories competitions were held in Kyoto and flower rankings were printed on a special sheet of paper, just like sumo rankings. In art, morning glories are always a much loved and appreciated subject.

This particular artwork was inspired by the Maltese landscape, where morning glories thrive, thanks to the warm and sunny climate. This artwork is artist's appreciation of the pretty flower. The blue watercolours turned out quite nicely, very similar to the delicate blue flowers seen in local gardens.

The painting is signed, sealed, wet-mounted on backing rice paper and ready to be framed or mounted on a silk scroll. Please use acid-free adhesives when framing. It is manually cut, please leave a few mm error margin for dimensions. Note that colours may differ due to differences in devices.