In Asia Mandarin Ducks are symbols of loyalty and love. Mandarin ducks stay together for life, they symbolize devotion, fidelity and lifelong affection in the matters of the heart. Feel free to contact me for a mandarin drawing commission with a lotus, bamboo, with or without a background. Sitting together, swimming together, or resting together.Mandarin Duck Art Cards at Etsy or contact me directly via the contact form.
I love drawing and painting mandarin ducks. I am always pleasantly surprised how sweet they look no matter how I change their position or background. They look lovely when bobbing on the Great Wave off Kanagawa or when they rest on a riverbank. My most favourite, however, is the graphite drawing of my mandarin ducks resting on a river bank in a forest area. The sun is setting and birds fly over in the background.
Mandarin Ducks Swimming in a Lotus Pond.
I love working with colours but making a 19-century style graphite drawing that is full texture, detail and depth is a wonderful thing to do.
Monochromatic Mandarin Ducks. Ducks are resting on a forest surrounded riverbank at sunset. by Paula Kuitenbrouwer
Having said this, it always adds colour to my day when I can use my whole range of coloured pencils or Derwent watercolours to work on the drake’s outrageously colourful plumage. But take away all colours, like I did for the Albino mandarin ducks, you still find yourself in awe of probably the cutest water-bird.
Resting Mandarin Duck by Paula Kuitenbrouwer
Mandarin Ducks in Lotus Pond by Paula Kuitenbrouwer
Albino Mandarin Ducks art cards by Paula Kuitenbrouwer
Marvellous Mandarin Ducks art card
Mandarin Ducks Bobbing on The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Paula Kuitenbrouwer
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 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.
This circular composition is available at Etsy. The original drawing of the ducks in the lotus pond is available here. Should you not like Etsy and you need cards or a commission or this original drawing, contact me freely and without obligation by using the contact form.
Paula Kuitenbrouwer 