PAINTING IRISES IN MY GARDEN

If you have clicked on this image for larger version, you 'll see a little pencil shape on the righthand flower - it was a cabbage white butterfly that landed for about 2 seconds and the outline is all I managed!!! ...
This is me enjoying an afternoon in the garden painting a very free watercolour of my irises. Unfortunately we had had two full days of heavy rain previously and the heads were in great distress. In fact they were so heavy some were almost touching the floor and I had to stake them back upright.


I was so inspired by my afternoon's work that a few days later I redrew one of the heads much larger and painted it in my studio/den. I used my White Knights watercolours and mainly a Kolinsky sable Cirrus series long handled size 4 brush. The warm colours were mixed from prussion blue and violet rose and the creamy central petal raw sienna and lemon. The greens were a mix of lemon then adding bluey green leaving the lemon clean for the folds where the light was catching , followed by much darker washes and touches of raw sienna. Finally adding some dark lines along the length of the leaves following the folds to give movement.