Sara Calcagno - Still life

Peonies’ Dream, the idealized memory of peonies

With this painting I tried to paint the idealized memory of a peony garden: the dream of a peony garden. It is a study and it isn’t so big but neither so small.. I enjoyed with experimenting on this piece.. I finished it some days ago.

Peonies are such a poetic flower, with all those gigantic light petals. They amaze with their size and with their splendour. I adore going in peony gardens and absorbing their energy and their beauty. They are such beautiful and poetic flowers! For some years, in the past, I lived in Montefiascone (Viterbo, Italy) and in april and may I used to go very often to Centro Botanico Moutan in Vitorchiano. There they grow all kinds of peonies, they say they have the biggest collection of chines peonies in Europe! I don’t know, if it’s the biggest. For sure it is astonishing. They have such a gorgeous collection .. you can litterally walk among peonies high like yourself for hours.. This year I would have loved to go again but due to covid lockdown, we couldn’t move from our region. Pity but it will be for next year! I was lucky that my neighbor has the most amazing peonies and I could make so many pics.

Hope you will enjoy this study. It was funny to paint it and the result is what I expected, a little bit dreamy and ethereal.

Peonies’ Dream, oil on canvas by Sara Calcagno, 41 x 22 cm