The Next Day

The Next Day

plein air oil  10" x 8"

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$195.00 + $10. s/h

As those of you who are gardeners or flower lovers know, you have a short time in which to enjoy, and in my case paint, the flowers while they are perfectly blooming.  So, I painted these last tow one day after the other.  Makes the set up pretty easy!

In The Back Yard

In The Garden

plein air oil  10" x 8"

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$195.00 + $10. s/h

Several years ago we bought some incredible iris from IRIS4U in Denver.  They continue to bloom in the most incredible deep violet.  We've divided them and moved them around the yard as needed.  I love seeing them each spring!

Back Yard Iris

Back Yard Iris
Oil  16" x 20"
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$595.00 + $20. s/h

This was part of our back yard last month.  Most of this painting was done in the back yard, but a few touch ups were added a bit later in my studio.  I generally hang the "almost" done, or "I think" this is done pieces on one studio wall where I can look at them for awhile until I decide if they're finished.  This one took quite a bit of looking and heading back outside to really re-look at the leaves.  

Here's the start of my piece w/ most of the block in finished.

Oriental Butterflies

Oriental Butterflies
Oil on stretched canvas  20" x 10"
$395.00 + $10. s/h

SOLD

This is the third of my violet iris series.  It's the fifth iris painting of this summer.  I love painting iris. They're a soft, gentle flower.  I love being out doors and how great is it to just paint in my own back yard!  These three violet iris paintings have all been of the tall, bearded iris from IRIS4U Gardens in Denver.

Below are some of the iris at IRIS4U.  My husband and I have gone there to buy iris.  My

 plein air group, Garden Artists, has gone there several times to paint!

Amethystine Night

Amethystine Night

Oil on stretched canvas  20" x 10"

$395.00 + $10. s/h

This is another iris from earlier this summer in our back yard.  I'm not really sure what amethyst looks like at night, but I think this title sounds great!  Sometimes to help me with my titles I use Google.  For this one I googled "poems about purple, poems about iris".  It's so interesting what you find out there!

For example I found a site about colors and it told me this about purple:

"Frequently in opinion polls, the colour purple is rated as one of the most popular of all hues. It can be deep and luxurious in tone, and indeed for more than a thousand years was considered to be the most imperial of colours - a colour which signified in a very real sense, great affluence and power." 

Purple Passion

Purple Passion

Oil on wrapped canvas  20" x 10"

$395.00 + $10. s/h

This is a painting that I did earlier this summer in our backyard.  We purchased these tall hybrid iris from IRUS4U Gardens in Denver.  They specialize in tall bearded iris.  

It's so interesting to post these pictures.  The garden is so different right now!!  We've had so much rain in Colorado this summer (yeah!)  that everything is extra big, extra green.

Tying The Knot

Tying The Knot
Oil  20" x 16"
$495.00 + $20. s/h

This is another iris from our backyard that I painted last month.  While looking in the book "Roy G Biv" in the yellow chapter I saw that when a traditional Hindi girl "ties the knot" she gets her hands yellow by lavishly decorating them in henna.  Thus, my title.  All of the different  color and country traditions are interesting!

Joyful Iris

Joyful Iris

Oil  20" x 16"

$495.00 + $20. s/h

I read in the book, Roy G. Biv by Jude Stewart, (a Christmas gift from our son) that yellow represents "joy";  thus, the title of this painting.  I think iris are joyful flowers.  They just look happy to me.  I painted 2 yellow iris pieces this same size and 3 pieces of violet iris on long vertical canvases.  Look for these soon!

I posted this picture from our backyard a while back when I was painting this.  The garden looks very different now.

A Whiter Shade Of Pale

A Whiter Shade Of Pale
Oil  8" x 6"
$100.00 + $10. s/h

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I love the warmth when painting in the late afternoon.  But, I love the challenge of painting the cool morning whites.  This was one of the last iris in our back yard.  We have fewer white iris than yellow and violet and only a few of them bloomed this year.  Maybe they're getting too much shade.  I'll think about dividing and moving some in the fall.

Whites are always a fun challenge, whether cool or warm.  For Christmas our son gave me a book called Roy G. Biv by Jude Stewart.  Many kids learned the color this way:  red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.  I didn't teach it that way, I used the 3 primaries and 3 secondaries.  Nevertheless, it's a great title for "an exceedingly surprising book about color."  I just read the chapter on white.  It says that Benjamin Moore has 140 shades of white paint!  I also learned that Queen Victoria popularized white for wedding dresses, and that the Latvian song for happy birthdays is  "Have Many White Days."

Night Hawk Dreams

Night Hawk Dreams
Oil 6" x 8"
$100.00 + $10. s/h

SOLD

Night Hawk Dreams is from a trip to Iris4U Gardens in Denver.  Iris 4 U grows tall, bearded iris.  Some years there are more iris than others, but no matter how many there are, it's a spectacular place.  A garden that makes you want to paint and shop!

Backyard Plein Air

I worked on a painting this morning in our backyard.  Our iris are beautiful this year, so 

I'll be outside for the next few days!  We have a covered patio, so I leave this easel

outside, all set up, ready to go.  I'll post the finished piece soon.

100 Garden & Floral Oil Paintings, Original Art Work from A Colorado Daily Painter, 16/100

6" x 6" oil on panel
$100.00 + $10. s/h

This is the second iris that I painted at IRIS4U Garden in Denver.  It was late morning, the lighting was changing quickly and the group was ready for lunch!

100 Garden & Floral Oil Paintings, Original Art Work from A Colorado Daily Painter, 15/100

"Trillionaire" at  IRIS4U
6" x 8" oil on panel
$100.00 + $10. s/h

SOLD

Yesterday my plein air group went to Denver to IRIS4U Garden.  The garden is open from mid-May until late June.  You are free to wander through their acres of iris and paint, look, picnic, purchase, enjoy.  I find it overwhelming at first as to which blooms to paint.  There are so many; it's  feast for the eyes.  I brought home their catalogue and think I'll order from their website.

Sherbert Frost

SOLD
6" x 8" oil on canvas panel
$75.00 + $10.00 s/h
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This is yet another piece from my plein-aire trip to Iris 4 u in Denver this week. I didn't get the name of this flower, so I created my own; I hope Iris Bob approves. I don't really understand plant genetics. The idea of hybridizing a flower is so interesting. But, how do you create a flower whose standard is shadesof peach, and whose beard is deep purple, lavender and white? My creativeness bends in a different direction.

I don't know how many of you follow r garriott's blogs (4), but you should. Great paintings! Today the urban garden blog featured Iris 4 u!! I couldn't believe it! I guess Coloradoans think iris this month!

Night Hawk Dreams

6" x 8" oil on panel $75.00 + $10. s/h SOLD This is another piece from yesterday's trip to Iris 4 u in Denver. I think this is such a great name for a flower: Night Hawk Dreams. It's so amazing to me that iris can be hybridized to have such unique colors on the standard and the beard. (I read the catalogue to learn the parts of the iris!!) I used to think that iris were tints and shades of violets and yellows. Now I know better. Our daughter, who lives in Denver, met me after I finished painting. We went shopping for her graduation dress. She'll graduate from DU, University of Denver, in 2 weeks. We had several hours of shopping fun, and dinner. Yes, she found a great dress!

Leading Light

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel
$75.00 + $10. s/h
contact me if interested
SOLD

One day each month my plein-aire group drives to an out of town location to paint. Today we went to Denver (70 miles north) to the Iris 4 u Iris Gardens. Iris 4 U grows and hybridizes tall bearded iris. While only about 20% of the iris were blooming (due to Colorado's cool spring) there were hundreds to paint, and thousands more which will be blooming the rest of this week and next. I may have to drive back up there and paint again as the grounds were beautiful. I really didn't know there were (are) that many varitities and colors of iris. And, of course, each iris has a unique name.