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!

Silk Painting Demonstration

 I was invited to do a silk painting demonstration and talk at the Feltham Art group. It was a friendly and lively group which made it a pleasure.
 I demonstrated painting irises, one of my favourite flowers.
I did the drawing at home and outlined the flowers and leaves with gold gutta to act as a resist and keep the colours within boundaries. Colours spread fast on dry silk. The gutta had gone a bit thick and was rather difficult to pipe from the nozzle but it looked OK. I painted mostly wet on wet and had rather more leaks through the gutta than usual, so I had to work at speed and use the hair dryer often. I quite like a bit of colour flowing into the background and and vice versa into the flowers. I soften the leaked colour with water and dry immediately. The thing to try to avoid is when a bit of colour leaks through unnoticed and dries with a hard edge looking like a bubblegum bubble. Although even those can be turned into something else such as an extra leaf or petal.
I have a bit more work to do on this painting. Back in my studio I used a different tube of gutta and have gone back over some of the lines to make a more waterproof barrier.  Then I will make the background colours much stronger especially behind the leaves. I will show the finished painting in another post.

One of the group asked whether metallic gutta could be used on watercolour paper. An interesting thought which I shall experiment with and report back in another post.