Daily Doodle # 20: Irises

Irises

In Praise of Idleness Drawing 47

Irises

Lapses: Disgraceful and Indulgent

Last week’s watercolor painting of irises (I have not picked up a paintbrush since then.)

“What a disgraceful lapse!  Nothing added to my disquisition, & life allowed to waste like a tap left running.  Eleven days unrecorded.”
—  Virginia Woolf, from her diaries

It’s been over a week since my last post.  I’m sorry for the lapse, but I cannot promise more “disgraceful” gaps in the future.  I am slowing down in my old age!  Now that I am in my sixties, I get less satisfaction from checking lots of items off of an ambitious “To-Do” list.  Those kinds of full days now tire me out.  It’s been very busy at work lately because a nearby branch library is closed for renovations and upgrades, so many of its patrons are coming into the Greenwood Branch and our workload has practically doubled.  In spite of the longer days, I’m just not motivated to tackle any personal projects when I get home.

In my mind, I frequently tell myself just to STOP.  To take a moment and slow down.  Breathe and think about what is important that moment, that day.  And sometimes, indulging myself by curling up on the couch with a good book feels better than accomplishing something more worthwhile.

Right now I have about four hours before my sister and brother-in-law arrive for an overnight visit, and while I finish two loads of laundry, I plan to take out a large drawing pad and make some preliminary sketches of squirrels.  They are so energetic and playful, I hope I can capture that spirit in this morning’s work.  Painting and drawing always make me feel better afterwards.  I bet that painting squirrel antics will enliven me even more.

Hope you have a great weekend!

 

Painting is My Practice

“The love of a practice, the effort of trying to master it, gives us a different portal through which to enter the world and, thus, another way both to see new places and to draw from our innate beings the things that are potentially contained within it.”
— An Absorbing Errand: How Artists and Craftsmen Make Their Way to Mastery by Janna Malamud Smith

Last week just one ‘Sambuca rosa’ iris was in bloom

What a difference a week makes!  This past Thursday a group of friends met for a second time in Kitty’s iris garden on Samish Island.  Far more irises were in bloom, and I imagine next week’s garden will be even more profuse.  I wish I could return again, but I fear my schedule is too tight in the coming weeks.  There is always something wonderful and new to see.

“Our interest and competencies create the focus for our gaze, stimulate our curiosity about variation, allow us to seek and find fruit in what is initially an obscure grove.”
— An Absorbing Errand: How Artists and Craftsmen Make Their Way to Mastery by Janna Malamud Smith

My eyes were stimulated by the gorgeous and varied colors of these magnificent irises.  I am still not done painting irises this year!

Kitty’s iris beds, week 2

Siberian iris, ‘Silver Edge’

The velvety black petals of ‘Matt McNames’ iris

Blue beards!

‘Ancient Echoes’ iris

‘Snowed In’ iris

‘Lily Pond’ irises

‘Patriotic Hearts’ iris

Some buds remain to open in the coming days and weeks

Watercolor painting, Iris Medley, inspired by Kitty’s garden

Watercolor painting of ‘Pond Lily’ irises

 

Sometimes Less is More

A promising start:

Watercolor sketch of irises from Kitty’s garden

And then I added background . . . and now I don’t like it as much.  Sometimes less is more.

So I started over and tried again.

Still not all the way there (to where I want to be).

 

More Iris Paintings

‘Jessie’s Song’ irises from Kitty’s garden on Samish Island

I like the way the tall irises stand tall in a row.  The repetition is pleasing to my eye.

Part one of my watercolor painting of irises in a row

My finished painting

 

Painting in Kitty’s Iris Garden

Kitty’s iris garden on Samish Island

This iris is called ‘Moonlit Water’

We picked a cool day for our trip up north to Samish Island to paint in our friend Kitty’s iris garden.  Her irises are just starting to bloom.  It was rather nice, actually, to have fewer irises to gaze at.  In another week or two, there will be so many colors and varieties vying for our attention.

This is such an inspiring place, lovingly tended, overlooking the Sound.  I am loving painting irises this year.

More photos from Kitty’s and Steve’s garden

Painted in the garden

From Kitty’s porch during a rain shower

 

 

Gorging on Spring’s Orgy

Inspiration for my latest painting — a row of purple irises

Ado
by Mary Ursula Bethell

It grows too fast!  I cannot keep pace with it!
While I mow the front lawns, the drying green becomes impossible;
While I weed the east path, from the west path spring dandelions;
What time I sort the borders, the orchard escapes me.
While I clap my hands against the blackbird,
Michael, our cat, is rolling on a seedling;
While I chase Michael, a young rabbit is eyeing the lettuces.

And oh the orgies, to think of the orgies
When I am not present to preside over this microcosm!

 

Wordless Wednesdays: 12 Close-Up Views from a Single Photograph

 

Letting an Iris Express Itself, Its Being, Through You

More from Frederick Franck’s The Awakened Eye:

“Instead of the pleasures of so-called ‘self-expression,’ you will discover a greater one:  the joy of letting a leaf, a branch, express itself, its being, through you.”

An iris so purple, it’s black.

Watercolor sketch of iris using paper from France (Moulin a Papier de Provence)

” . . . seeing — for instance — what it is to be a blade of grass.  Or rather: that a blade of grass does not exist — that only this particular blade of grass exists; and that ‘a’ man, ‘a’ woman are figments of the imagination, only this particular man or woman is real.  Drawing the Ten Thousand Things is a way of loving, of being in love with life by seeing each thing in its singularity.”

Kitty’s iris garden on Samish Island

Imagine drawing ten thousand things, starting with each of these irises in Kitty’s garden.  This reminds me of the so-called 10,000 hour rule for mastery.  I agree that in order to become a better painter, I need to work more regularly, even daily.  But with my choppy “paid” work schedule, I seem to repeatedly grind to a halt.  I am constantly starting again.  This is my particular challenge these days.

I am always happier when my day includes some drawing or painting.  Here is a good way to look at my efforts:  “Measure your life in the number of times you do things.  When you die: are you 2 writing sessions old?  Or are you 50,000?”  —  James Altucher, from “The Only Technique to Learn Something New”

The singularity of this particular iris