Koi Fish and Lotus Flowers
Large Chinese Painting

Elegant Music and Harmony

Yǎ Lè Hé Xié

The Chinese title is 雅樂和諧 or "yǎ lè hé xié" which can be read as "Elegant Music and Harmony".
The characters after that read 丁酉年, which is an ancient way to indicate this was painted in 2017. The artist signed it, 袁野畫, or "Yuan Ye Painted" (畫 is a character that in this context means, "painted by").

These colorful carp are associated strongly with both Japanese and Chinese cultures. Beautiful city parks across China are often graced with a pond full of these fish year-round. They are powerful fish, as seen swimming slowly under thick sheets of ice in lakes during the brutal Winter of northern China.

Also, in Mandarin Chinese, "fish" is pronounced "Yu" which is the same pronunciation as the word meaning "wealth" or "abundance". So many Chinese people believe that having a painting of fish in your home will bring you wealth and riches.

Materials used are special black and red-orange Chinese ink on handmade xuan paper. The painting was then mounted with a copper-brown-colored silk brocade matting/border.

About the Artist:

This was hand painted by (Yuan Ye) who lives near Guilin in Southern China. Most of his paintings feature fish which are his specialty.