Depictions of autumn and cosmos flowers
Certainly, the aesthetic appeal of the autumnal landscape in Korea is spectacular. Wherever you are, hills and mountains are ablaze with breathtaking colors of gorgeous foliage. Among them, Seoraksan National Park in the north of Seoul and Naejangsan National Park down in the Jeolla provinces are absolutely perfect for enjoying autumnal leaves. Mount Seorak's name means “Snow-capped mountain” and Mount Naejang's name means “Mountain concealed with some secret in its depth.” The Seoraksan National Park has many beautiful mountain peaks, the tallest being Daecheonbong at an altitude of 1,708 meters (5,604 ft).
Aside from the beautiful skies and foliage, I have another reason that I adore Korean autumn particularly. It is because I can enjoy the beautiful cosmos flowers that bloom anywhere and everywhere in nature across the country. Sitting atop long, slender stems, the tender little flowers are so pretty and elegant. Unlike many other still and quiet flowers, cosmos flowers are always in graceful motion, smiling, singing, and dancing in the breeze — like humans.
Besides, the feeble-looking, delicate flowers are unbelievably strong, enough so to tolerate the extreme weather conditions such as drought in summer and continue to bloom until the first frost in November. Therefore, the incredible plants always reminded me of the steadfast and perseverant Korean women of the past — like my two elder sisters.
When I was young, in order to keep the lovely cosmos flowers nearby, I wanted to grow the cosmos plants in the house where I lived. So I planted seedlings in the flowerpots and moved them around repeatedly following the sunny spots in the house. But it was unsuccessful. Then I cultivated part of the vegetable patches in the backyard to grow cosmos from seeds, but again, it was not a success. The cause of the failure was lack of full sunlight for the wild plants to grow and thrive.
Incidentally, I loved both painting and calligraphy ever since I was in primary school, winning many prizes during the period of Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945). But those hobbies didn’t last long because of Japanese participation in the Pacific War and subsequent mobilization of students in the frenzied war efforts. But I didn’t entirely give up my artistic pursuits. In fact, I kept practicing the hobbies again after the war and continued them for pleasure over the years. I always think both calligraphy and painting are great hobbies that are so pleasing, relaxing and tranquilizing.
I was fond of painting flowers, particularly cosmos flowers when they were in full bloom. I had painted cosmos flowers at least half a dozen times before in both oil and watercolor. But honestly I didn’t do so to my satisfaction. But I acknowledged over the years that painting cosmos flowers was one of the hardest subjects in painting any flowers. I enjoyed using watercolors to depict the subtleties of the dainty and fragile petals of cosmos flowers.
On a pretty October afternoon several years ago, impulsively, I felt like painting cosmos flowers again. Hurriedly, I took a trip to the riverside of the Nakdong River, the vast natural habitat of cosmos plants and took some pictures of the dazzling flowers to paint from. Then, in excitement and anticipation, I started to paint my favorite flowers. It had been a long time since I last painted these flowers. But the result was a simple disappointment. Due to my lack of skill, innovation and inspiration, I still could not depict in the flowers their “human qualities” that I adore, such as: love, elegance, innocence, civility, modesty, artlessness and so on.
Yi Woo-won (yiwoowon1988@gmail.com) lives in Waegwan, North Gyeongsang Province, and has been writing since 1986.