Rose Goddess is another painting that I began years ago and have just now completed. I had always loved the composition but her face was not right. I had found the image from a photograph of a goddess statue in the Versailles gardens. Her face had always looked too masculine, so that’s what I changed to complete her.
I have heard that my mom’s mother loved roses and had a beautiful rose garden. She died when I was too young to remember her. My parents both admired her and always spoke of what a wonderful and loving woman she had been. No one ever said an unkind word about her. I think of her and her loving qualities and wished I had gotten to know her. She had a pair of rose vases that I feel lucky to have inherited. The fact that my loving grandmother loved roses has stuck with me and gotten me curious about the rose symbolism.
The rose has been associated with goddesses throughout history. In one legend the first roses sprang from the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite’s tears. In later times the rose symbolized the beauty of romantic love. Under Christianity, the rose became the Virgin Mary’s sacred flower, representing the divine feminine love. The accepting feminine loving energy is so special and much needed now.
Heni's Happy Paintings 