Purple Iris
The Farmhouse Garden often included the lilac bush, rosebush, black-eyed susan, daisy, hydrangea, bleeding heart, peony and of course, the purple iris. As for the peony, I was an adult before I learned its proper pronunciation as pee·uh·nee. My great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother, all pronounced it as 'piney' (with a long i). The old folks referred to them as piney roses and used them on decoration day (now called memorial day) when they used them to decorate the graves. So in honor of all those who went before me, I will forever call them pineys. But back to the beloved iris...
Painting the beautiful iris took me back to the first hints of summer when the flowers began to bud and bloom in our farmhouse gardens. The reference photo used for the painting is courtesy of Louise De Masi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJntBzMsmGU&t=24s In her YouTube video, she explains some of the painting techniques I used in this painting.
Painted on 10 x 14 inch Arches Cold Pressed 300lb Watercolor paper using the following watercolors:
Burnt Sienna, French Ultramarine, Permanent Rose, Transparent Orange, Hansa Yellow, and Winsor Violet.
From sketch to finished painting
To read more about growing your own farmhouse garden, check out the link below: https://hellofarmhouse.com/farmhouse-flower-garden-favorites/
Happy Gardening!
Helen
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