Nativity Scene with Animals in Garden Notebook

This painting shows Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus with overlapping halos in a profusely blooming garden. Birds and butterflies are nearby. The scene has an Asian flair. My mother painted this in the "Tu-Aunqua" method where the design is meticulously worked out on tissue paper first. The outlines are transferred to paper backed silk fabric and then filled in with oil paints. She learned the method as well as the stylistic approach from her mother. The term itself, found in an exhibit brochure describing her work, might have been a phonetic translation of "labor table painting" from Chinese.