寿桃Longevity Peach

A fabric picture: cut cloth takes the place of brush and ink on a white paper ground. At the upper right stands the character shou, “long life,” cut from scarlet satin and lightly padded, so each stroke swells from the surface while its ends keep the shape of a brushstroke. Below it hangs a single large peach made of two overlapping pieces of fine pink cloth, dyed from deep rose to pale like a ripe blush, with green leaves veined in ink and a twig of brown cloth. Two blue-gray bats flit at the upper left. A red seal is stamped at the lower left and another at the upper right.

She calls this piece simply “longevity peach,” and the title follows her. The peach is the fruit of the immortals and stands for long life; the bat, fu, sounds like the word for good fortune. With the character shou, the picture wishes fortune and long life together.

此为布艺贴画，以白纸为地，剪布代笔。右上一“寿”字，以朱红缎面裁成，内衬薄棉，笔画饱满隆起，起收转折犹存笔意。其下寿桃一枚，以粉红细布两片相叠，分出桃缝，布面染作胭脂深浅，宛若晕染；桃侧绿叶数片，叶脉以墨线勾出，桃枝以褐布剪成。左上灰蓝蝙蝠两只，展翼翩飞，与“寿”字遥相呼应。左下、右上各钤朱印一方。

画家自称此作为“寿桃”，因以名之。桃为仙果，寓长寿；“蝠”谐“福”，与“寿”字相合，正是福寿双全之意。