Elizabeth's Irises

 

                                           Elizabeth's Irises     Acrylic with washi paper and gold
                                           (c) Tessa Spanton

A few years ago Elizabeth, a good friend and artist gave me a piece of iris rhizome from her garden.
It flowered the first year and has continued to spread and flourish. one year it even flowered twice so is what iris growers call remontant. It has to be staked as it's to heavy for its own good and keels over, otherwise it has thrived on near neglect.
There were so many blooms this year so I picked some and brought them into the house. The fragrance is fantastic!
I am not painting flowers much now but I had some in my studio and they were crying out to be painted.
I have just finished the Art2Life Creative Visionary programme. This painting came at the time we were exploring texture and collage. The first layers of paint were put on with a brush, crumpled up kitchen roll and an old credit card. The flowers were painted on top.
I have a collection of Japanese washi paper, gifts from my Japanese friends. I cut and tore pieces and played around with positioning them. I kept changing my mind. I stayed undecided and it sat unfinished for a couple of weeks until last night when I went for it and stuck them on.
To finish I added Shminke gold over the collage and some of the flowers while watching The Kitchen Table Art Project 2020 (KTAP) live last night at 8pm UK time. #kitchentableartproject as the subject was flowers and gardens.
I will frame it in either a grey or a white frame, both waiting in the wings for me to choose.

KTAP was started by Nicholas Wilton during lockdown on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube It was weekly and continues though now not weekly. For more info click here
All KTAP episodes have been recorded and can be found on Youtube and PDFs are available with content information. I particularly enjoyed last night's episode. I liked the work of both artists featured and as a keen gardener enojoyed seeing and learning about Nicholas Wilton's fantastic biodynamic garden. A regular highlight is when Ferris mixes a cocktail. Last night's was a lavender gin cocktail. As I grow lavender and the first plant has just come into flower I will be giving this one a try. I poured myself a Sipsmith sloe gin. Cheers!

Iris Botanical Ink

                                                    'Iris with bud'     iris botanical ink

I painted this while the Kitchen Table Art Project was live on Wed 3rd June #kitchentableartproject
This project began during lockdown and was weekly. It continues but no longer weekly. details and PDFs with info are available from the link above. They have been recorded and are on Youtube
I also worked on another iris painting, that will be in the next post.

It has been a good year for irises in my garden. I bought Iris Titan's Glory some years ago as I read that it performs and lasts really well. It's taken a long time to get going, maybe I should have split the clump sooner and given it more tlc. I split the clump into 3 last year and each piece has produced  lots of flowers so worth the wait. Its a tall and very fragrant bearded iris.

When the flowers went over the colour became more concentrated. The photo shows the dye that oozed out onto a paper towel.

 

The greenish areas are where I added some salt.

 I had a go at making some iris ink. I did 2 small batches. For the first one I steeped the spent flowers in surgical spirit for a day or 2 and drained of the liquid into a little pot. The smell isn't great. I went on a herbal course long ago and remember making a calendula tincture using vodka so I used that for the second batch, the smell of this extract is wonderful. I am not a fan of vodka and much prefer Champagne or a G&T

Please note If you make it don't be tempted to put it in a cocktail as iris flowers are toxic.

The image at the top of the post shows the ink painted onto Saunders Waterford paper and the colour has stayed vivid.

Below The paper used makes a difference.

below
I also tried it on  a cheaper watercolour paper. The colour was good when I first touched it to the paper but became more greyed down losing the saturation of colour and the ink sat in puddles.

The ink made with surgical spirit came out rather grey on paper.
For my next experiment I will take a little ink and add salt to see if I can get a green for the iris leaves.
I don't suppose the ink will be very colourfast but fun to use for greetings cards. Or you could experiment with a layer of UV protection painted over it but not something i have ever tried.

Opportunities for Art Making

 Lilies     black pen on paper
This is today's effort for Viral Art Club on instagram link here
 I drew negative shapes only. A fun visual work out but I did need tea and toast with marmalade after to refuel.

Since lockdown due to covid19 here in the UK some of my activities have switched online.
I cancelled the classes I teach and offered an online option or a refund. Most opted for online classes. I quickly set up a Dropbox folder  I made some demo videos, filmed by OH on my phone, complete with virtual biscuits for all. I added notes and photo reference. Students can post their work there, see each others and leave comments.
My Pilates tutor set up live online sessions on Zoom so I can continue with that.

                                          Seascapes 1 and 2    acrylic

                                          Cornish Pebbles  acrylic

Also I am doing the online Art2life Creative Visionary Programme. Above is my work from this week. Part of the brief is  to avoid midtones.
 I signed up for this 4 or 5 weeks ago before lockdown hoping I would be able to fit in the hours. I am pleased I did as I am able to spend more time on it than I would have done and I am finding it well worth doing. We get live calls and coaching sessions each week, lots of resources to draw upon, tasks and projects for each week and contact with a large community of people worldwide who are doing the course. Some are beginners, some are teachers and some have done the course before.
I look forward to the live sessions and seeing what art others there have been making.

Chihuli at Kew 2019

The Sun is a blown glass sculpture made in many parts. It looks splendid beside the lake outside the Palm House. The planting in the urns echoes the shapes.

 

Paint brushes

Here the shapes are echoed by the conifers.

                                         The Sapphire Star

  I like the way the sedums and blue grass are arranged in the shop, another echo of Chihuli shapes.

Below,  inside the Temperate House

                                         
                                           Inside the Waterlily House

                                         There was a lot more to see in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery.

 

Silk Painting Workshop with Sutton South Hello Group

 

The Sutton South Hello group meet every Thursday for art and craft porjects. There is also a social club on a Wednesday and a fitness group all providing a friendly and welcoming space were people can meet others living locally.  You can find more details here 

 I was invited along to show them how I make silk necklaces. The one we did is a good place to start. I have several other variations that I have devised as well as ear rings.

I9 women attended the spacious hall at Christchurch Sutton to get creative.
In the photo above I am about to drip silk paint colours from  droppers onto some predampened silk.
Everyone chose some colours and did the same. Pinks and mauves were a popular choice. I like the yellow and green ones with yellow spacer beads. The silks were dried using a hairdrier and ironed to fix the colour. The silk was then stictched to make a long tube that becomes both the covering for the beads and the ties for the necklace.

Five filler beads and 6 spacer beads alternate to form the necklace, the loose end form ribbons to tie the necklace when worn.

 The necklaces  tie at the back

The results were great so well done everyone!
Thanks too to the helpful young man who served us tea and cakes and tidied up at the end.

Pentle Bay, Tresco, Isles of Scilly

 

 

Pentle Bay, Tresco,  Isles of Scilly      Acrylic (c) Tessa Spanton

I am delighted that his painting has been selected for the Society of Women Artists 2019 exhibition

24th-29th September, at the Mall Galleries, London. More details here

I wanted to do a plein air painting on one of Tresco's beaches. I chose Pentle Bay, a beautiful long beach curving like a crescent at one end. It is fringed with white sand, shells and seaweed. I like it best when the tide is not too low. I found a cowrie shell as I walked along to chose a spot.

I usually use watercolour or pencil for plein air work and didn't have an easel so it was a bit of a challenge to avoid everything face palming into the sand! I did incorporate a bit of Tresco sand into the foreground and found that a few of the silvery particles of mica from the sand had found their way onto the painting.

This was followed by something delicious to eat and drink at the Ruin Beach Cafe at Old Grimsby. I will write about that in another post. Meanwhile more details here

I did some more tweaks on it at home and decided to frame it in time for submssion day at the Mall Galleries just a few days later.

 The frame is made with a hardwood moulding and appears a bit darker in this photo than in reality.

 

 Handing in is at the back of the Mall Galleries from Carlton House Terrace beyond the board and down some steep steps. Paintings are piled high so need to be in durable frames.

Then its back to Trafalgar Square to get a no 11 bus to Victoria.