For the artist's description and comments, scroll down.

Most people are familiar with the Genesis story of Adam and Eve, and the garden of Eden. Because Adam and Eve didn't leave any photo scrapbooks or pictures behind, we don't know what Eden actually looked like, so each person has their own "mind's eye" image of Eden. Shown here is my artist's concept of what Eden should have looked like. This is a "classical" subject, which has had little attention for several centuries. The word "garden" is no doubt evocative for many people, and the picture here is of a natural garden randomly strewn with flowers.

As usual in John Art the flowers are shown in near-photographic profusion, and in the source file the individual blossoms are resolved all the way to the horizon. Inkjet printing will resolve most of the flowers in the finished print.

The happy couple stand surrounded by flowers, near a fig tree which provides snacks when needed. They are clothed in only fig leaves and a garland of flowers since the benign climate doesn't call for more garments. They are young and happy, and don't have a family yet.

The tree is simply to be thought of as a fig tree, without symbolic meaning. No serpent is shown either. Who needs original sin? Fig leaves were the subject of a considerable study, based upon the many fig photos available on internet photo-sharing sites. There are many, many species of fig trees with somewhat differing leaf shapes. I eventually settled on this 5-lobed leaf.

I think of Adam and Eve as our earliest hunter-gatherer ancestors. "Noble savages" living in a "state of nature". Their environment provides all they need, and they have each other for company. Do they really need cell phones to be happy?

The couple's fig leaves and white blossoms are shown mostly so that this site can remain G rated. In digital art it is simple enough to switch off the drawing of these objects, which would show that an anatomically realistic image is drawn before the fig leaves. Such a provision has been made in the drawing program. The R rated version is not shown here.

Many scholars identify Eden with Mesopotamia. Since this river valley is bounded by deserts on both sides a range of low dunes is shown in the background.

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