Watercolors of Irises



Deb wrote:

"I've begun a drawing of an iris but before I get much farther I'll need
permission of the gardener. I think this one came from Margot's  Gardens. If
not, I may need to change the color and a bit of the shape, but it's
breathtaking.

My search for a flower began when I was looking for a large, watercolor painting
or print for our formal entry. We have a high 20 foot ceiling and it needed to
be dramatic, but I didn't want to lose the elegance of the flower by reaching
for drama. Everything I saw seemed to be very harsh or not realistic, and after
extensive searching I decided to do one myself. It'll take several studies
before I'm ready to go to canvas, but I adore the lacy, variegated leaves, and
the delicacy if the entire blossom."



Tom here;
I spent a lovely afternoon yesterday at the home of Marie Caillet who was the
Editor of "Louisiana Irises".  She has an iris named for her that you can see at
http://hometown.aol.com/bigalligator/myhomepage/garden.html.  You will see that
it is bright purple and yellow.  I asked her about it and she showed me a
beautiful watercolor of it that had been done some years before.  To my surprise
it was all pink!  I told her I thought it was purple and yellow and she said
that it used to be but the colors fade.

When I saw Deb's post this morning, it got me wondering about maintaining true
colors in a watercolor.  I know sunlight will fade the colors, but Marie had it
in an interior room.  Could it be that just certain colors fade?  That might be
an important consideration for Deb.

Tom



 

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