The Butterfly Images Of Contemporary Female Painters

Butterfly images can be easily found in Chinese poetry and literature works due to Chinese obsession of butterfly imagery. It arises people’s desire for the beauty as well as pursuit of illusory dreams embodied in butterflies. Historically, butterflies have been common images in Chinese paintings. Traditionally, the images were most presented with a backdrop of natural environment. Nevertheless, modern painters’butterfly images are more emotional. Particularly the new meticulous paintrees, they depict delicate butterflies from their sensitive and feminine perspectives, embodying their spirits and feelings into the butterflies.This paper is divided into three sections. First, it will discuss butterflies and women. Butterfly images have long been existed in Chinese culture historically, from ancient myth to poems and lyrics later. Also, the creature was welcome in traditional Chinese flower-and-bird paintings. By studying painting history, we find that female painters are naturally bonded to butterflies. Among modern female painters, the new meticulous paintress, particularly, are commonly appeared to be obsessed with butterflies. The second section will introduce butterfly images in paintings of the new meticulous paintress. I will provide cases of Gao qian and Qin ai, both new meticulous paintress, and discuss how both paintress depict butterflies in their works. Embodying their feelings in the butterflies, the paintress create unique shape and colors on the images as an attempt to extend their value of modern beauty. The final section will analyze the reason why butterflies and the new meticulous paintress are closely bonded psychologically and physically.This paper will discuss how modern paintress experience life, how they feel and why they long for an unconstrained life as well as freedom, and analyze their unique emotions and the reason of the obsession with butterfly imagery as an attempt to explore its multiple meanings.