Iris Lace with Wild Columbine

Blue and purple iris watercolor on paper, by Conni Schaftenaar

I couldn't resist the play on words of naming this Iris Lace. As a long-time... more

by Conni Schaftenaar

Original - Not For Sale

Price

Not Specified

Dimensions

9.000 x 12.000 inches

Title

Iris Lace with Wild Columbine

Artist

Conni Schaftenaar

Medium

Painting - Watercolor On Paper

Description

Blue and purple iris watercolor on paper, by Conni Schaftenaar

I couldn't resist the play on words of naming this "Iris Lace". As a long-time crocheter, I have crocheted and absolutely love the 3D texture and intricacies of Irish Lace. I had chosen a photo of an iris I have that I had filtered in Photoshop to be in bright neon colors (see this image on my gallery). The original photo was taken by a friend at my house, and she graciously has allowed me to use her photo.

Our watercolor class was challenged to create a watercolor painting utilizing some sort of patterning as part of the painting. Some people were using stencils to add or lift off color, some used stamps and other devices. I used a fine piece of machine-made edging lace I had and, after pouring very light Thalo Blue and dropping in some green (Sap Green, I think!), once the light colored background had dried (iris and the several wild columbine blossoms were masked), I then draped the lace across the painting and sprayed a darker mix of Thalo Blue, giving me the lovely relief of the lace in the background. I then used negative painting techniques to bring out the iris leaves and the columbine leaves (the wild columbine grows rampantly around my flower gardens where it will, and this past year there were a couple of them in among the irises, providing a lovely counterpoint in orange to the purple-blue irises).

The machine-made lace is NOT Irish Lace, but the pattern of flowers and filigree lace reminds me of some Irish Lace I have patterns for, so I just couldn't resist bringing it into the name of this painting.

I was unsure how I felt about doing a painting with a pattern included, but this one turned out to be a lot of fun - I hope you like it!

2017 Georgetown Artists' Exhibit Judge's Choice Award: Floral category
2017 Georgetown Artists' Exhibit Artists' Choice Award: Clever Use of Materials category.
2017 Festival of the Arts Regional Art Exhibition Juried Selection
Honorable Mention lead in TFGA Series Amazing Irises Contest, June 2020
2nd Place Tie in the Your Favorite Sale Contest, October 2020
2nd place tie (with myself!) in the Blue Botanicals All Media Contest, February 2021
3rd place tie in the Irises contest, March 2022
Honorable Mention tie in the Loveliness of Spring contest, April 2022
2nd Place tie in the Finding the Unexpected contest, May 2022
2nd place tie in the Beautiful Watercolors Special Features contest, July 2022

Featured in these FAA Groups:
Art, It's Good For You, March 2017
Exclusively Drawings & Paintings, March, 2017
Images That Excite You, March, 2017
Created By My Hands, March, 2017
Beauty in Art, April 2017
Midwest America Artists, April 2017
Admin Pick, Artist Salon 2-handmade Only, October 2017
Amazing Irises, June, 2020
1000 Views on One Image, January 2021
Special Feature in 1000 Views on One Image, January 2021
Beautiful Watercolors, May 2022
A Woman's Touch, May 2022
Fantasy Flowers, May 2022
Fine Arts Watercolor, May 2022
Your Best Work, May 2022
All Glorious Gardens "Blue" collection, November 2022
The Artist BUZzz, February 2023

Uploaded

March 2nd, 2017