Monday 22 November 2010

IRIDACEAE PAINTINGS - in other words Irises!

Am currently working on an idea for a large piece on irises - that wonderful flower family Iridaceae. So am going over images of earlier work depicting irises, of which I thought you might like to see a selection.

This one is from a large tall canvas in acrylic showing the textured acrylic stone surround of a stainglass window with painted irises in the bottom window so that I could combine my two favourite genre - flowers and churches



This is the first of abstracted pieces framed as three individual squares alongside each other, in very thinned acrylic to create flowing washes.
.. and finally here is a panoramic line of different irises painted in acrylic on canvas, which you can see is not quite finished at this stage. After adding the stems and leaves on the right I added some soft lavender thin acrylic washes to the background creating more light to the left. Don't seem to have a photo in my archives of the finished piece but I remember it well. I still have the original pencil sketch in one of my panoramic watercolour books.

I am enjoying going through the archive photos of my earlier work with irises - and there are plenty more from watercolour botanical studies of flowers in my garden to acrylic decorative large pieces. Its amazing how often you can paint one flower species and yet create something entirely different every time.
Glad to say all three images will enlarge with a click.

9 comments:

RH Carpenter said...

I love the dancing iris (or is it irises?) at the bottom but also love the pure energy of the abstract one - it vibrates on the page! They tell us that painting something again and again takes us to understanding of the thing.

Cori Lynn Berg said...

I agree ... there is something about flowers and churches. I love all three.. but am most drawn to the abstract. It really breaks down the essence of the flower! Amazing!

debwardart said...

I love the stained glass image!

Sandra Rowney said...

I'm interested in the abstracted forms, they seem to have so much energy in them.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Strange how individuals are drawn to a particular work, there are lovely comments from you about the abstract iris painting here on my blog yet no one commented on this particular image in flickr!

Barb Sailor said...

All are beautiful, but I am particularly drawn to the top work - the textural qualities are awesome and the colors just beautiful.

Unknown said...

What an interesting idea Joan. I love the stained glass window and abstract a lot.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Glad you liked the portion of the stainglass window. I used thick Liquitex acrylic with a palette knife to create the stone feeling, then thinned down acrylic for the window finishing with a glaze to create a glass effect.
Nice to here from you Sue. Hope all is well out there. Certainly warmer than snowy East Anglia.

Robyn Sinclair said...

I always love your flowers, Joan. Beautiful.