Work Text:
Peeta dips his paintbrush into some dark green paint and half-heartedly continues to paint the pine trees in the sweeping landscape that he's been working on. Landscapes have never really been his thing as an artist. District 12 is markedly short on scenic views as it is a fenced-in coal camp. But Peeta's seen some breathtaking views on his Victory Tour. Glittering cities, wide-open farm land, smooth beaches, and rugged mountains. The painting he's working on belongs to this last category. It's some mountains covered in pine trees, captured at sunset.
Peeta sighs as he looks at the painting. There's nothing wrong with it, exactly, but he fancies that it lacks some spark of inspiration. Effie had told him that he's expected to produce some paintings from his Victory Tour and so he'd chosen this magnificent landscape from District 7, but Peeta's heart isn't in it.
Idly, he begins working on the one part of the painting that he does find interesting — a small figure standing off to one side, wearing a fancy gray dress that whips in the wind, a bit of her dark hair escaping its normal braid.
Katniss.
Katniss is everywhere in his art. He's afraid that it's almost creepy how much he paints her. She doesn't reciprocate his feelings, after all. But Katniss had looked at his paintings during the early part of the Tour and although she hadn't liked seeing how many of them focused on the Games, she'd said nothing about how often she featured in them. Peeta figured that meant it was okay to keep painting her.
Peeta has painted Katniss many different ways, in many different moods. He's painted brave, determined Katniss going off to get him the medicine during their Games. He's painted sweet, joyful Katniss enjoying a moment with Prim on their front porch. He's painted her sad and loving and even scared.
In this painting, she is straight-backed and proud and the orange sunset behind her recalls her Girl on Fire persona. She is unbroken despite all the things the Capitol has done to try to break her. She's a hero; a symbol.
Peeta paints a flock of mockingjays taking flight near Katniss. He'll have to work on something different for Effie. He can't show this painting on television.