In 2024 when I visited Japan, the timing meant I missed most of the peonies at home; but as it happens, Kyoto Botanical Gardens also has a splendid peony plot, with the additional advantage that many of the peonies are in high raised beds, so the flowers are basically at eye level. They were particularly splendid, at their peak and covered with water drops, on April 23rd.

2 peony blossoms, drawn sometime around 23apr2024; coloured sometime on or before 15sept2025; graphite and watercolours on hotpress ‘postcard’ stock, just under 4x6"/10x15cm; photographed 11nov25 sony A7c, 90mm macro, cropped and colour adjusted in gimp

These particular ones actually were planted in a pot, and because of the rain, I left colouring them for later (possibly with the idea of attempting water drops, which as you see I was far too lazy to attempt.)

The paint, especially on the petals, very much has the feel of awkwardly applied acrylics, or at least gouache, but this is actually watercolour.^[1] For some reason or other I've been doing this scrubby, overworked effect for the last several, um, years?^[2] —it might, some day, turn into something interesting, but in the meantime, I was just happy to have managed to a) found the photo ref, and b) finally coloured it, since the drawing was rather flat with just the graphite.

pixel pro 6, f/1.9, ev 0, ISO 45, 23apr2024, Kyoto Botanical Gardens.

Because I wrote down the name of this peony (in kanji, so even though I have no idea how to pronounce it or what it means,) I was able to track down the photo reference for it; I added the file name when I coloured it. Because, frankly, I'd like to try depicting these flowers again—they're not too complicated, and what with being at absolute peak—look at that luscious pollen—and the rain drops and rich colour, they're really magnificent, a testament to the care these flowers receive at the Kyoto Botanical Gardens.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.