Thursday 28 June 2012

Iris

I'm having a good week in the sense that I'm getting some painting time. The latest project developed out of a number of things going through my mind. First of all I've been interested in exploring some less than traditional techniques, currently getting some exposure with the recent publicity for the very fine artist, Jean Haines. Amongst these techniques is the use of salt and cling film to create texture. Whilst I've been aware of these techniques for some time I've never given them the time to get added to my own repertoire.

The next thing that I was thinking of was, maybe doing a series of paintings on one subject and after the recent picture that I posted of irises I thought they would make a good subject to explore. After coming to this idea I came upon a recent post from a fabulous floral painter, Yvonne Harry. She can be found at www.watercolourflorals.blogspot.com . In her post she had made a picture of an iris and added a textured background. I loved it. Off then to Google to find images of the iris variety that she had used and the marriage of the various notions running through my thinking brought me to this, hopefully the start of an exploration using the Iris as inspiration.


Iris - Watercolour on Not paper 18" x 12"

10 comments:

Ray Maclachlan Art said...

That is a beautiful painting Mick. It is well worth exploring that theme. I'm intrigued by the background. It looks like many techniques were used. The palette looks interesting too.

Dan Kent said...

Stunning. Like Ray, the background amazes me.

Linda Roth said...

This is gorgeous Mick. I agree with Dan. The background is very well handled and the iris is superb. I have one question, being not a watercolorist, what is Not paper?

Unknown said...

Ray - the techniques were straightforward. I created wet washes of pigment that reflected or were complementary to the main subject then added salt to some parts of the wet wash and then covered the wet areas with cling film and moved it around a little to make interesting shapes and leave it to dry. It's worth experimenting with.

Unknown said...

Dan - Thanks a lot. See above for background technique.

Unknown said...

Linda - Thanks. Not paper is what is sometimes known as Cold Pressed. In England the name developed by saying it's NOT Hot pressed.

Sophia Khan said...

Hello Mick,

I recently started following your site and must say, this is gorgeous. Very dramatic and I love the contrast of the realistic Iris with the abstracted experimental background. Looking forward to seeing more of these. Also loved all your Venice watercolors:)

Unknown said...

Sophia - Thanks for stopping by. Delighted that you like the Venice pictures. I see that Venice means a lot to you having visited your blogs. I think that my recent visit there is behind some of the directions that I'm travelling in my art at the present time.

Nora MacPhail said...

Marvelous! Very striking and confident.

Unknown said...

Nora - Thanks so much.