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Order your Mandarin Duck Art Card (frame-able)

Would you like to order a professionally printed Mandarin Ducks (Aix galericulata) art card or postcard that can be framed? You are at the right place. Over the years I have drawn and painted many Mandarin duck couples as commissions but also free hand.

Two cards are double folded, others are postcards. All come with envelopes. Plus, as long as I have them in stock, I will include an Asian, vintage mandarin duck postal stamp. For large orders I need extra time because large amounts will be printed on demand. Please, contact me for orders of more than 5.

What do I have in stock?

I have this double folded art card with the drake (male duck) on the left side:

and this double folded art card, with the drake on the right side:

Plus, I have two postcards. A monochromatic (a romantic 19s century graphite drawing) post card with mandarin ducks resting near a forest stream:

and this vintage coloured (watercolour) one with mandarin ducks resting under large, lush lotus leaves:

A box with several mandarin duck cards also makes a very nice gift:

FRAMED MANDARIN DUCKS

In case a postcard is not enough, in case a more substantial gift is needed, I have a few mounted mandarin ducks available too. These are coloured pencil/water-colour original artworks. They are mounted with professional Kadinsky mounts (UK). They will arrive at your home in a strong package. They can be framed but there are customers who do not frame them and put them on their shelves on a small painting’s easel (which I have available as well). For more information on these lovely mandarin ducks, click here. This link provides you with the option to add a small painter’s easel for displaying your mandarin ducks without a frame. Take good care: there are mandarin ducks looking left or right. You probably prefer a mandarin couple looking to the directing of the welcoming door of the room where you will put them on display.

Please, use the contact form, for informing me which art or postcard you prefer and how many, and please add your full address and email. Inform me please also whether you prefer Track & Trace (which will have additional costs of around 5 Euros). I will send an invoice via Paypal.

After you have paid, the Mandarin ducks will take off and migrate a.s.a.p. to your home.

Would you like to order via Etsy, follow this link.

There are many MANDARIN DUCKS at my ETSY. Sometimes I think my Etsy shop is a duck pond with the most colourful and cute ducks imaginable (including wood ducks, teals and swans)

Paula Kuitenbrouwer

Two Mandarin Duck Couples

I like to show you two different mandarin duck drawings. In traditional Asian culture, mandarin ducks are believed to be lifelong couples, unlike other species of ducks. Hence they are regarded as a symbol of love, affection, and fidelity.

Mandarin ducks Lotus Pond warm.jpg — Mandarin Ducks in Lotus Pond copyright Paula Kuitenbrouwer

The first drawing is titled Matchmaking in Heaven. It shows a mandarin duck couple in a lotus pond. It is a softly rendered watercolour drawing. The pond is calm, lotus flowers are growing and so is the bond between this duck and drake deepening. The duck and drake have just decided to take a swim. They will look for food, synchronized as they are. They are life long partners and, like swans, will stay together. Lotus flowers are symbols of purity, enlightenment, self-regeneration and rebirth. In Asia, mandarin ducks represent love and loyalty. Seeing bonding ducks, seeing how synchronised they are, makes people long for a deep belonging, a deep bond between lovers. Love renews itself every day; it grows, it deepens and sometimes we need to stand still and take time to say ‘I love you’ to our beloved ones. Because, although we know it, expressing this during a day that is full of obligations, commitments, and ambitions is a good thing. Combining the Lotus symbol with the Mandarin ducks, this couple stays together to grow old and wise together. They feel reborn in their deepening love every season.

The other mandarin duck couple drawing has a longer story. I was about to add a new couple to my portfolio when I noticed the Fibonacci Sequence in one of my old sketches. I immediately set out to make a circular composition, adding two ducks shaped as in the well-know Fibonacci fashion. And after having done that successfully, I couldn’t stop and added parts of The Great Wave off Kanagawa by the Japanese artist Hokusai next to the mandarin ducks.

Now I had four Fibonacci elements in one drawing, as I recognized the Fibonacci sequence in Hokusai’s wave too. This mandarin duck couple, deeply in love with each other, is bathing in wild waters. In fact, they are so deeply bonded, they have no idea where they individually begin or end. They have become one in emotion and routine. They are also one with the waters they live in.

The beautiful Hokusai wave, which could be interpreted as the pleasant and unpleasant high waves life throws at every couple, can’t separate them. They will stay together during their whole life; in high tide and low tide, in calm and difficult times, through day and night, till the end.

More Mandarin ducks are at my Etsy homepage & Instagram.

Paula Kuitenbrouwer

Forest Scene: Mandarin Ducks Resting on a River Bank

The mandarin ducks (Aix galericulata) have carefully chosen a place to rest. They seems to blend in with the dark background, thus if necessary, they will respond quickly by taking to the waters and thus escape predators. The river is calm, the forest is rich in sounds and smells, and all is well. The reflection of the lovely couple is visible in the calm water. Birds are flying over.

The duck and drake have just decided to take a rest and have already positioned themselves on the bank. The duck is checking the left, the drake checks the right, if all feels safe they will soon tuck their bills into their wings and take a nap. After that they will look for food again, synchronized as they are. They are life long partners, like swans. In Asia mandarin ducks represent love and loyalty. On the photos of this drawing, you will notice a few wooden ducks. They are used, in Asia, like drawings, prints and paintings, to enhance feelings of love and loyalty in homes and rooms between couples. Seeing bonding ducks, seeing how synchronised they are, makes people long for a deep belonging, a deep bond between lovers.

This is a softly rendered graphite drawing. On my Etsy home page and Instagram you can watch a video of the making of this drawing. I have done many Mandarin duck commissions for homes, weddings, engagements, stationary, or meditation/sleeping rooms. Contact me should you have specific wishes regarding a mandarin duck drawing. Also, have a look at my shop where you will find mandarin duck mini-prints, cards, and full colour drawings. May I advise to have a full colour drawing of mandarin ducks in a monochromatic coloured room and a softly rendered graphite drawing in a colourful room?

Artist information: Derwent graphite H-series pencils on Arches hot press paper 31-41 cm. Winsor & Newton Varnish Spray.

Ornithological information: Although Mandarin ducks are Asian ducks, Dutch park and estate owners buy these ducks to add some bright colours to their duck ponds or castle moats. Mandarin ducks then need nesting facilities because in nature they breed inside tree cavities. They seem to do well in Dutch weather. I am very lucky to have spotted them nearby my home town. One thinks that they stand out splendidly, but I can assure you that even the very colourful drake often seems to blend in its surroundings perfectly.

Paula Kuitenbrouwer

@mindfulfdrawing on Instagram (video link)

Etsy (for video watching scroll down till ‘About Paula Kuitenbrouwer’

www.mindfuldrawing.com

mindfuldrawing@gmail.com