Iris #1

Irises are amazing! Their bright, frilly ruffled petals are a joy of themselves, and sneaking a peek inside to reveal the detail within is a treasure! I have them all over my yard: in full shade, in full sun, where it is irrigated and where it is dry, and they perform amazingly everywhere. The flowers only last about a month each spring, but with this Collage-Painting you can enjoy them every day!

Most of my artwork is based on the flowers I grow in my yard, and I am especially proud of my xeriscape garden. Xeriscape gardening principles discourage the use of irrigation in order to garden responsibly in arid or semi-arid conditions. Irises do surprisingly well with little moisture, and I am pleased to show people how beautiful a garden can be without wasting water, a precious resource here in my home of Colorado.

I grow these flowers in my garden, photograph them (or sometimes hire a friend to help with photos!) and use them as inspiration for my artwork. This piece, “Iris #1" was created in my signature style of collage-painting.

I prepare a wood panel by cutting, sanding and staining it. This time, I used a light blue stain for the sky. For the background, I manipulated magazine pages in a way that lifts the ink off of the page and swirls it around. This makes an abstract but very natural-looking background in a rich array of natural brown, olive, and yellow/green tones. Petals were cut from various art papers and minute details were rendered in acrylic paint.

The original is 15” x 27” and comes wired and ready to hang, mounted on an off-black frame backer using glue and nails (overall size is 17.5” x 29.5”). The nails (black carpet tacks, technically) are exposed, adding to the hand-crafted look of the piece. These pictures take about 40 hours to create (not including the gardening). I hope you enjoy the flowers as much as I do!