Crane and Iris Poster

A white crane lifts out of a gold roundel, wings spread across an embroidered cream ground. Two further circles float beside it, one holding dark irises over pale water, the other chrysanthemums and maple leaves in green and rust. The embroidery is worked in satin stitch, so the feathers catch light along their length and the gold behind them reads as thread rather than paint. Everything else is left empty, which is what gives the bird its lift. The restraint is deliberate and very Japanese: three motifs, one ground, nothing filling the space between them.

The warm cream ground suits rooms with wood and wool rather than white and chrome, and it carries well above a bed or a low cabinet. A pale oak frame keeps the print in its own register; black turns it graphic and loses some of the silk. Because the composition is mostly empty ground it needs air around it, so give it a wall of its own rather than a gallery wall. On canvas the weave meets the embroidery halfway and the gold roundel gains a little depth.