Irises in progress

Inspired by the incredible work of Rosie Sanders I decided to start a large (half sheet) watercolour of the bearded irises in my garden.  The background will be the white of the paper which is a challenge in itself!  The first image is a detail showing where I'm up to so far, the other three are progress images showing the whole thing.  So far, so good!

Last Year's Iris

We're suffering miserable spring weather in the UK at the moment, it has been cold and wet and miserable and I think the flowers are sulking!  I went through my photos from previous springs and found a lovely iris to cheer me up.  Finances being tight at the moment I need to sell more and figured small work would be more affordable, so I'm working on a series of small square works.... fingers crossed this strategy works!

Square Dance - 7.5" x 7.5", watercolour on Fabriano Artistico extra white paper

Buy Square Dance

Iris from life

It's always good to get your observational skills honed by painting from life, but I'm ashamed to admit that I rarely do so.  I don't enjoy painting out of doors, there are too many distractions and the light changes constantly.  Last week a single flower snapped from its stem and I brought it inside to paint it quickly, before it wilted.

Wasn't it a stunner?  My friend Janet said "that's not a flower, it's a floozy!" and I agree!  I went straight in with the paintbrush, no pencil sketch, and was amazed at how well it turned out.  I added an invented stem and foliage and here's the result:

Bearded Iris - Small Format Macro

Bearded Iris
Watercolour on 140lb Fabriano Artistico, 5" x 5"

Here's my second small format macro floral, a colourful bearded iris up close and personal! The orangey yellows really stand out against the purple, making a small painting with big impact!

There's something about the square format, it forces you to think carefully about composition, using the space efficiently. I'll be doing more!

Bearded Ladies

Sometimes you have an idea and it just doesn't work - that's what happened with the little blue iris painting I was working on, it just hasn't worked out the way I envisioned. Maybe I can rescue it, but it's more likely to end up in my scrap pile.

So I decided to move on to a reference that had been in my "to do" file since last summer, two beautiful purple bearded iris. This was a completely different experience, I had a clear vision and enjoyed every brushstroke!

Bearded Ladies
14" x 10", watercolour on 140lb Fabriano Artistico extra white, cold pressed