In Love With Irises

My most recent love affair is with Irises.

Is it because they are in bloom here in Washington?

I am intrigued by the colors, shapes, and details of the lines. I have begun a watercolor painting of my neighbor's beautiful purple, lavender, and yellow-orange, Iris and have patiently awaited the bloom of the Iris I was gifted with last fall.

They are just beginning to open.......


Look at this lovely specimen!


We had a terrible wind and rain storm last evening and this morning I found one of my beautiful Iris on the ground. Hoping to be able to stake it for support, to my dismay, I saw that a slug had chewed through its stem. Then, observing the others...........I found one bud tip chewed off.

THIS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! Tonight with flashlight in hand, I will eliminate the guilty slug or slugs. No mercy!

Artist of the Outdoors

Recently a friend recommended I watch the video Rivers And Tides Working With Time featuring Andy Goldsworthy.

I give it FIVE stars!

Firstly, the photography is outstanding, but most of all Andy Goldsworthy is a phenomenal artist at heart. He lives and breathes creativity. He "performs" his art outdoors using various aspects of nature.

After watching him create, I found a bit of kinship to him having created a winding river of stones around my house. He and I both seem to connect with the winding, looping, unsymmetrical shape reminiscent of a meandering river.

Andy Goldsworthy is a British photographer, sculptor and environmentalist living in Scotland. He specialises in site specific art as well as Land art. For Goldsworthy nature is no longer just a concept, “My art makes me see again what is there and in this respect I am also rediscovering the child within me…”

Land Art, Earth Art or Earthworks is a movement which emerged in the U.S in the late 60’s and early 70’s. The main theme of this work is that the land is not just a scene or exhibition space for which a sculpture is to be placed. But rather the land is the work and whatever the artist has created shares a special relationship with its surroundings and is a part of it, for without the land the work could not exist.

Most pieces of Land Art have temporary life span, existing only for a short time before being absorbed by the nature around it, or left to erode or decay naturally, this itself being as much the work as its original form. The works are remembered only by photographs or film.

'Maple Leaves arrangement' by Andy Goldsworthy, this piece fully sums up what Land Art is about, nature constructing and being the work, rather than the work being placed in nature.

'Cracked Rock Spiral' Andy Goldsworthy. Goldsworthy's work is a perfect example of Land Art, as, taken out of its environment this piece would not work, the rocks could only be positioned on sand and in little time would be swept away by the sea. This time based element is a strong theme in Goldsworthy's work.

By the way, I found this video at my local library.

Edgar Degas

I learned a few new interesting facts about Edgar Degas while reading Trewin Copplestone's book, Edgar Degas, to my art therapy client.

Edgar Degas who lived from 1834-1917, became a professional painter through a change in his family's fortunes. He grew up the privileged son of wealthy and cultured parents and despite his interest in art was destined for a career in law until the failure of the family back. Not the typical starving artist!

Rene-Hilaire De Gas
1857
Oil
Edgar Degas was 23 years old when he painted this portrait of his grandfather.

Degas, being the oldest grandson, spent a great deal of time with his grandfather who was the source of his financial security.

More than any of his famous contemporaries, while possibly excluding Manet, Degas was a traditionalist painter. He was dismissive of the Impressionist technique as a method, although he participated in most of the group's early exhibitions. As a result, he is more closely allied in popular understanding with Impressionism than he himself ever wished to be.

Best know for his paintings of ballet dancers, Degas was an urbane and savagely witty man, choosing his subjects from the cultured society life of Paris in which he was a well known figure.

The Green Dancers
1877-9
Pastel and Gouache

Change

Change is good, right?

After walking by and gazing at my last watercolor painting in my studio this last week, I decided to make some changes.

The color, ORANGE, spoke to me. I added it to darken the darks and to bring out a glow in the leaves. Then, I heard PURPLE.

I am not sure if you can pick up the colors or not on the internet rendition, but the painting if filled with color and I had fun watching them transform.

Which one is your favorite?




I hope it is the first one as the second no longer exists except in a digital image.

Why Irises?

Now I know why the Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh painted irises, and one need not be isolated in an asylum either. They are ablsolutely stunning!

I took some photos of my neighbors iris patch.




Take a close look at this magnificent flower!



And they have a fragrance similar to the smell of grapes. Wonder if it has anything to do with the flower being purple?

Maybe it is time to get out my paints...

More Berries

I must admit, I am addicted to berries and there is no recovery program that can cure me.

In the summertime, I go to the Farmers' Market and buy two flats of berries at a time; one to freeze for winter and one to eat. I do this on a regular basis when the strawberries, raspberries, boysenberries, and blueberries are ripe.

I also like to forage in the woods for berries. Now flowering along the Chehalis Western Trail in Olympia, Washington, are the Timbleberry and Native Blackberry.

Timbleberry

The Thimbleberry is native to western and northern North America. It is a dense shrub up to 2.5 m tall with canes 3-15 mm diameter, often growing in large clumps which spread through the plant's underground rhizome. Unlike most other members of the genus, it has no thorns. It produces a tart edible fruit which ripen to a bright red in mid to late summer. Like other raspberries it is not a true berry, but instead an aggregate fruit of numerous drupelets around a central core; the drupelets may be carefully removed separately from the core when picked, leaving a hollow fruit which bears a resemblance to a thimble, perhaps giving the plant its name.

Thimbleberry fruits are larger, flatter, and softer than raspberries, and have many small seeds. Because the fruit is so soft, it does not pack or ship well, so thimbleberries are rarely cultivated commercially. However, wild thimbleberries make an excellent jam which is sold as a local delicacy.

Native Mountain Blackberry

Do not confuse this blackberry with the weed that grows profusely in the Pacific Northwest. The native blackberries are quite different. They are ropey and creep on the ground except where supported by a shrub, boulder or fence. All blackberries with tall, self-supporting, thick and stiff canes are exotic weed species. The berries of the native plant are very small and require large quantities to make any substantial treat.

Many health benefits come from eating blackberries that are rich in anti-oxidants and vitamins along with being a good source of the minerals potassium, phosphorus, iron, and calcium.

Newest Rendition

For all those Trillium lovers out there, I completed a second watercolor painting of the delicate, native spring flower, the Trillium.

I played with giving the painting more color and less detail.

Trillium #2

Here is the first rendition:

Sign of Spring

Do you have a favorite?