Purple Iris--following the color wheel around

I am one of those people who need a project or deadline to work to. Other wise I just think about what I want to do and never really get to it.  That is why I have created a  project for myself to paint flowers around the color wheel.

This week I have been working on purple--a really purple iris. I have always wanted to paint one of these  beautiful flowers but have been intimidated by their complex structure. I think I have this one under control. Painted from a summer photo that I enlarged and cropped really tight. I  have tried to have lots of lost and soft edges in the back ground and kept the harder edges in the focal point.

 I used ultramarine purple and blue and quin red for the petals. I found that using cad red I could grey the purple down for the softer passages. Cad red has the orange that is the complement of purple that quin red does not it also makes an interesting black. I am learning or should I say finally absorbing  and applying what I have read about color in my art books though the years.  A great side effect of this little project of mine.

This photo is an earlier work in progress (WIP) photo of the iris. Yesterday I got the colors much deeper and completed the bottom petals with the little fuzzy bits that iris has on the big lower petals.

I will get another photo today so you can see the difference. 

Thought you would like to see what I do to check my paintings while I am working on them. I have mirror on one wall that I use to look at my paintings in reverse. The mirror image really shows  where the painting needs improvement, changes, completion, color changes--anything at all. 

The Iris on my easel and a pretty good selection of my paintings on the walls. The old enamel topped table is my pallet. I taped old posters down to the table top that have been laminated. I can really spread out on the table and make a mess.If it gets too bad, I can strip the laminated paper off the top and tape a clean one down. The plastic can be cleaned up just like a regular palette as long as I keep ahead of the drying paint. I use copal drying medium with my paints, when they dry on the plastic they are there forever.

y way.....................

My mirror with the Iris painting reflected in it.  I do have to say that I love my studio space. I really thank my husband for suggesting that I get this space when I retired.  He was inspired. Thanks Sweetie!

And a photo of my other sweetie--Big Bear soaking up the winter sunshine.

I wish I could say that Bear is my cat but he has really adopted Dan as his Man. He will not sit on my lap like our other cats have. But he will perch on Dan's long thigh and will let Dan hold him in a nice tight hug. He is a man's cat, Big Black Bear

I really ran on today.....Sorry about that.

Permission to be free

 My workshop with Bob Burridge last week was a week of work and fun. Bob passed out our permission slips to be free in our paintings and to express what we wanted. Being the tight painter that I am, this permission was one of the best things of the week. Our warm up sessions every morning, got us swinging our brushes and our blood heated up for the rest of the day. The short sessions with the model kept us moving a just putting impressions down on our papers.

The second part of the week we worked on our paintings of the model and learned (tried to learn) how to be free with collage. Bob sees collage a just another aspect of his painting. A touch of texture or a note of color on his painting. I had gone to the workshop with a big box of interesting collage items and only used some paper that I brought along. Every one in the class did the same thing. He fooled us all. His collage elements were photo copies of a small kids flag that he cut up and used as stripes or stars on his paintings. Very reserved for Bob. 

This is the collage that was the most successful of the whole week. It is a quarter sheet of water color paper with collage and acrylic paint. It did not come together until I added the greyed back ground. After seeing it here on the blog I think that I will soften the little white circles on the right. Maybe more of the light grey instead of white. Here is another that I was happy with.

This one is small, just a sixth of a sheet about 8x10. I liked how the color scheme came together and the little bit of gold foil paper that I used for added bling.  I think it looks like a group of gospel singers on stage. In the spot light. 

As you can see these are not figures that were collaged. I did not get to collaging the figure paintings. I am just too unsure of what I am doing with them. With more work drawing figures, I may get to that point in the weeks ahead.

I received a grant to go to this workshop. As a result of my contract with the Prairie Lakes Region, I need to develop a body of work for a show that shows what I learned with Bob at the workshop. My goal  this fall is to work toward a show of my work some time this coming spring. I also need to have three paintings ready to hang in January for the grantees show in St. Peter. All the award winners will be hanging their work at this show. Should be fun.