"Double Iris Glory" (watercolor on paper; 10" x 7") sold

sold

It is the iris season in my garden. My neighbors taking a walk stop by to admire my purple irises. Oh, I love them!

"Bouquet with Irises Nigella and Foxglove" (watercolor on paper; 10.5" x 10.5")

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Yellow, blue, and purple bearded irises, yellow Dutch iris, Nigella, and foxglove in a white porcelain vase with rose decorations are really the very best my garden can offer.  Yup, I have been holding out the best among my recent watercolors until the last!

My New Watercolor Sketchbook (watercolor on paper; 9" x 9")

My new watercolor sketchbook

Here is my new homemade sketchbook.  It is made with Fabriano 140 lb hot press watercolor paper.  I cut the sheets into 9" × 9" squares, put my watercolor paintings as covers, had them bound at Staples.  I am now ready to go for splashing with watercolors!

I use 300 lb paper for my "serious" watercolor paintings.  Having paid top dollar for the paper, I tend to get cautious and play safe when I paint on it, whereas when I work in a sketchbook, I become experimental, loose, and playful.  So I decided to make a "serious" sketchbook with 140 lb paper so that I play around in it.  If something turns out great, I can tear the sheet off the binding, mat the painting and sell it.  Am I not ingenious, or what?

The Collage of My October 2015 Paintings

The collage of my October 2015 paintings

I was super productive last month until my accident!  Which painting is your favorite?  This month I will be probably busy with custom pet portraits for the holidays, but still intend to squeeze in a few watercolor florals.  Wish me luck!

"Morning Irises" (watercolor; 8" x 6") sold

sold

Curiously, some of my irises started blooming at the end of September.  After a rainy week thanks to Hurricane Joaquin, the sun finally returned to my garden.  My spirit soared to the sky at the sight of purple irises glowing in the morning sun!

Irises blooming in my autumn garden!

The Collage of My September 2015 Paintings

The Collage of My September 2015 Paintings

Time to show off the collage of the previous month's paintings!  There you go.  Lots of watercolors!  Which painting is your favorite?  By the way, I am not yet done with the watercolor fest: more peonies, irises, and roses to explore!

"Iris Beauty" (watercolor; 6" x 6")

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A purple iris glowing in the sun is a beautiful sight!

"Purple beauties" (watercolor; 10" x 7") sold

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A few days ago, I painted these same purple irises from a slightly different angle. Which one do you like better?

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"Purple Iris Glory" (watercolor; 8" x 6")

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Last fall we planted several iris bulbs and eagerly wait for them to bloom.  I even remember the day when the first flower opened up--May 10th!  Perhaps we should add a few more bulbs this year, since one can't have too many irises.

"Yellow Irises" (watercolor; 8" x 6")

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I spotted these vibrant yellow irises with their lush dark green spiky leaves at River Farm in Alexandria, VA in May.  To capture their bountiful flowering, I filled the picture to the brim!

"Spring Beauties" (watercolor; matted, 12" x 10") sold

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Irises are my favorite flowers.  Okay, okay, I also love peonies, roses, daffodils, lilacs, etc., etc.  Let me rephrase my statement: irises are on the top of my favorite flower list.  Among the rainbow colors in which irises come these days,  purple is the favorite color of mine.  Expect to see more of purple iris paintings in the following days!

"Purple Irises in the Sun" (oil on linen; 4" x 5") sold

sold

I realized that all of my iris paintings were done in a portrait, i.e., vertical, format.  It is not surprising, as that is how irises grow--tall and majestic.  I decided to challenge myself to paint a horizontal iris painting.  The dark reds and greens in the background make this small painting pulsate with heat!

"Summer Garden with Hydrangea" (oil on stretched canvas; 12" x 12") sold

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Before

Something about "Summer Garden with Hydrangea" bothered me.  It felt like a faded old picture.  I decided to rescue a painting nobody seemed to care for.  I punched up the darks, got rid of the dominant sap greens, and played up the violet-yellow green complementary color scheme.  My new summer garden painting looks kissed by the sun, don't you think?

"Spring Garden" (oil on linen; 12" x 12")

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This beautiful and inviting front garden bursts with spring flowers: azaleas, irises, daisies, etc. Red poppies bloom on the painted mailbox perched on a tree stump. In the back I can see a pergola for grape vines. Wouldn't you like to walk up the stairs to look around?

"White on Red" (oil on linen; 8" x 8")

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Reference photo

All this talk of grays got to me.  I decided to go crazy and do something wild.  What if I use cadmium red straight out of the tube to contrast with the grays on the white iris blooming in my neighborhood?  How do you like my wild painting?

Print Giveaway!

"Purple Glory" (watercolor, 20" x 14"; sold)
click here to buy a print for $25

It is the middle of the month, not my usual time for a print giveaway.  But I wanted to have some fun.  I've ordered a 16" x 11" print of "Purple Glory" from my imagekind.com print shop and am going to give it away this weekend.  If you want to win the print, you have to do three things: like my Facebook fan page, like the post that announces the print giveaway, and leave a comment.  I will announce the winner on Facebook on Monday morning.  Good luck!

"Azalea Woods" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold; "Iris Shadows" (oil on linen; 14" x 11") sold

sold

On the second day of Gregory Packard's workshop, Greg didn't do any demo.  What to do?  I did have some photos, but couldn't resist the fresh irises, azaleas, and many other flowers that some local workshop participants kindly brought from their gardens.  So I set out to do a still life painting of yellow and purple irises.  Boy, it was a big mistake!

My still life setup

"Iris Shadows" in original state

"Iris Shadows"
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Although the Bon Air Community Center, where the workshop was held, was a spacious, beautiful place, one thing it lacked was the spot lights.  Light was defused in the interior on a rainy day. There were shadows on the table, but they were faint. There were no distinct lit/shadow variations on the flowers.  I struggled for four hours, making up sunlight that didn't exist.  The yellow iris on the right opened up, so I had to change it from a bud to an open flower.

In the end, both Greg and I agreed that enough was enough.  The shadows were so big and dark that they competed with the flowers.  I filled the canvas with the flowers to the brim, so the painting became claustrophobic.  The flowers were overdone because I kept fiddling.

After I returned home, I decided to fix the painting.  Why not?  There was absolutely nothing to lose.  I introduced the table to break up the background.  I shrank and lightened the shadows.  I also decreased the size of some flowers and made some bluer, or purpler, etc. so that they were not all the same.  All in all, I think, the painting looks better.  It feels airy.

To get frustration out of system, I decided to do a landscape during the remaining hour.  I pulled out a photo of azaleas blooming in sunny woods.  Using the piles of paints on my palette, I whipped out "Azalea Woods" so fast that even I, a notoriously fast painter, was surprised at my speed.  Greg was impressed too.

The difference between the two painting experiences that day is that when I have a game plan, I paint decisively, assured of what I am doing.  When I try to make up things as I go along because I don't have a clue, no matter how hard I work at a painting, it goes nowhere!

"Purple Glory" (watercolor on paper; 20" x 14") sold

click here to buy a print

This may be the best iris painting I have ever done.  It just glows!  It received the Best in Show award in the Potomac Valley Watercolorists' Green Spring Show in 2007.  It is no longer available, but you can still purchase a small print.

By the way, I started selling prints of some of my paintings.  Please click here if you want to check out my print shop.  Thanks!

"Memories of Spring" (watercolor on paper; 17" x 8" each) sold

sold
matted size: 24 x 24"

When you love irises so much, you have to paint them big and in diptych!  These majestic purple irises sadly died out in my garden.  All I have are the memories.  So, in a way, the painting is the reminder of the ephemeral nature of life.  I am feeling philosophical.

"Purple Iris and Lady's Mantle" (watercolor on paper; 8" x 8") sold

sold

Purple irises with lady's mantle and scabiosa (pincushion flower) cast lovely shadows on a white ground.  Did you notice how expressive the shadows in my watercolor florals are?  I love them!  By the way, it's turning out to be extremely tricky to photograph these paintings.  These days I seem to be spending hours retaking and Photoshopping pictures.  The cerulean blue shadow on the right should be purple!

If you want to win a painting from my "Spring Fever" series at the end of the month, please sign in to follow my blog.  Thanks!