Last year I made myself a promise…..  That I would have my big Iris painting completed by the end of the year….. I was hoping to have it hanging up above the piano by Christmas! In my dreams!!!! Well, it is now the end of January 2012 already, and I am finally making inroads into the canvas. I am finding this project somewhat challenging if not a little daunting, and not only because of its scale.

I paint large size canvasses often (almost exclusively), but dealing with something of this size on an easel is not easy.  My easel is very solid and stable and has all sorts of movable bits to make painting canvasses of this size easier, but it is still a mission! It wobbles and the canvas bounces under the brush, which is alarming when you are trying to paint carefully and accurately.  Trying to move it around on its wheels after the light in the studio is also a drama because it tends to knock things over – usually my water bottle which sloshes and spills over onto the paint, or the floor, which is very aggravating!  Then I am constantly having to raise and lower the easel just to gain access to the various areas of the canvas and it all breaks my concentration.  I have managed to avoid painting in blocks and I think now that the leaves are done it will be easier.  When I eventually start on the irises themselves I can set the easel to where I want it and then leave it there till I am ready to go on to the next bloom.

The canvas is 150cm X 120cm. It comprises of 7 irises in full bloom and 2 large buds nestled amidst a clump of leaves. The colour scheme is unfolding as I paint really. It is my plan however to paint some of the blooms in purples and indigo’s and others in yellows, ocher’s and burgundy colours, but we will see how it all develops once I start laying down the colours for the petals.

Before Christmas I mapped out the drawing. The canvas is so large I had to divide it into blocks just so I could get my scale right as I wanted the flowers to balance with each other, the leaves and with the size of the canvas. Once I had done the initial drawing I blocked out the background in a neutral colour so the flowers would be the focus when the painting is eventually completed.

Today (Tuesday, 31 January) I finished all the leaves, tomorrow I hope to finish all the visible stems of the irises (6 in all), and then on Thursday, if all goes according to plan, I can finally start on the Iris flowers themselves.

Today (Wednesday 1 February) I completed the stems and the part above the stem that holds the petals of the iris together. It took a lot longer than I thought but I seem to have found my rhythm with this canvas so I am pleased with it. Tomorrow if all goes according to plan I hope to make a start on the actual iris flowers and buds.

I was in a bit of a funk today (Thursday 2 February) and wasn’t in the most creative of spaces. I selected my tubes of paint for mixing hoping it would make a difference but all I wanted to do was climb into bed and pull the duvet over my head. I have promised myself to do at least one flower a day so instead of a whole flower I painted two iris buds.

I was happy with how this bud came out. I especially liked the touch of green and the ravioli look to the unfurling bud.

I am not at all happy with this bud. I wanted it to be a tightly closed bud, more closed than the first one because I want each of the flowers to be in different stages of opening to fully open and almost ‘over ripe’. But this bud looks stiff to me and a bit squished, like it has been sat on. All I kept wanting to do was correct it and turn it into a big fat pregnant bud. That said iris buds can be very thin and elongated and certainly don’t always have that pregnant shape rosebuds do! I was not in the most creative of spaces this morning so opted to walk away from the canvas. What I really need to do is leave it and allow the painting to develop around it and then if it still bothers me return to it after I have finished everything else. At the moment it is taking a huge amount of self control not to tamper with it and overwork the area…..

The weekend has now passed and today the first flower has been completed…… Slowly the canvas takes on a different dimension altogether. The flower directly adjacent to this one I think I will also make a large yellow Iris, then I will start playing with the blues, indigo’s and purples….

Wednesday 8 February – After completing the 2nd Iris yesterday I was not at all happy with how the white bearded center popped out and didn’t seem part of the Iris center. To correct this I always dull it ever so slightly with a glaze of either sepia or burnt umber. The below photo shows the two irises I have completed so far. In the 2nd one from the right I have already painted the center with a combination of Glaze Medium and burnt umber. (A pity I didn’t take a before and after photograph to illustrate the change. It is very subtle but it works better now. I added only a dash of the umber colour to a lot of the Glaze Medium so it just takes the brightness off the white and allows it to look part of the flower rather than having the bearded center hovering on ‘top’ of the flower.

Still Wednesday 9 February…. Quite a productive day from a painting point of view! I added the first purple/blue iris and I love how the colour contrasts work.

Thursday 9 February and another Iris flower down. This one is more blue and will probably be the ‘bluest’ of all the dark purple irises.

Monday 13 February and the last of the yellow flowers are finished. There is a very light yellow center petal I was very unhappy with which since taking this picture I have changed. I have darkened and blended it more to look like the other petals. It just stood out so much you saw that before you saw the painting and it detracted from the over all shape of the flower.

Tuesday 14 February and the second last flower has been completed. I particularly like this one and it has balanced out the bud that was bothering me so much in the beginning. The iris flower hasn’t fully opened yet and the smaller more narrow look to the flower works with the tightly closed narrow bud to the left.

And on February 15 finally the last is done and the painting is complete!