Willow and Butterflies

This embroidery piece is based on an elegant and refreshing painting by the well-known modern Chinese painter Zhang Daqian (1899-1983 AD) which illustrates a typical spring scene with willow branches waving and butterflies dancing in spring breeze. Thanks to the embroiderer’s correct choice of colors and skillful application of techniques such as split stitches (jie zhen, 接针), linked-pearl-making stitches (lianzhu zhen, 连珠针), broken-line-making stitches (xu zhen, 虚针), neat stitches (qi zhen, 齐针), etc., this piece of needlework portrays a scene that combines reality and fantasy in which the subtle relationship between the moving and the still, the slightly curly willow leaves and the dancing butterflies are all messengers of the spring.
As it creates a scene that perfectly visualizes the household poem line “go to Yangzhou in March during the season of blooming flowers”, this piece was chosen as the representative artwork of Yangzhou embroidery at the Opening Gala of the “CCTV, Incomparable Beauty, and Blooming March of Yangzhou” International Economic, Trade and Tourism Festival of Yangzhou, 2008.