I, Iris

Third pass, more rain, and a finished painting

“I, Iris” 18 x 24 acrylic on canvas. Finished today.

I love iris, they are my favorite flower in the hard-to-find wetlands of Colorado. They only grow where there is plenty of water, and in June they carpet the pastures of high altitude ranches in the center of the state. We are lucky to have some iris habitat in the foothills, though there isn’t much of it. I called it I, Iris, because the flowers look so proud to be who they are. I also named one of my dogs Iris.

First thing this morning I went running with my friend Mel. It was Global Running Day today. I had no idea until she texted our group last night and asked if anyone wanted to run in the morning. We live close to each other, so we each ran toward our meeting spot and we did a run east of the lake, and I had a little over seven miles when I got home. I felt good today, I was able to keep a better pace than I have lately. I doubt the thyroid meds are kicking in yet, but maybe it was from not running for the past two days.

We took this selfie at an intersection about halfway between where we each live. There are huge new senior housing buildings behind us. We couldn’t possibly leave a view of the mountains for people to enjoy, now, can we?

After our run I had a Zoom call with Jill in Oregon and we painted together for nearly an hour and a half. I finished the iris painting above during the call, and then I pulled out my series and worked on it the rest of the morning until mid-afternoon. This was the third pass of the series for me, and I’m to the point now where I will start making decisions about value and design, covering over things I don’t like, and adjusting the darks and lights. This is where I will be taking risks and possibly wrecking things, but they can always be brought back to life. I might not work on the series for a few days now, just to give it a break and get some fresh ideas. Plus I really want to keep going with larger paintings so I’ll have inventory for the summer shows.

The series, with the throwaway panel last. Today I added some paint, textural marks, and lines. This was the third pass and I am ready to start looking for the good stuff, to direct my series as I continue painting.

Finally, an afternoon photo op. I’ve been needing some pictures for the website and other things and Dennis was home, so instead of me awkwardly setting up the timer on my phone, he was able to get some pictures of me while I was working.

I needed some photos of myself painting, for my website and occasionally for marketing purposes. Dennis took some pictures of me today. This is what it looks like in the studio and the yard, in real life. Not glamorous, but peaceful and holding a joyful presence while making art.

I didn’t pay much attention to Nut World today, so I have little to add in the way of political commentary.

Tonight it is raining again, it was a good downpour for a while there but now it isn’t much. It would be awesome if we kept getting this pattern of afternoon rain. Keep those fires away. Since the new FEMA director didn’t seem to know we had hurricanes in the U.S., he probably doesn’t know we have wildfires, either. What a dweefus. (Dweeb + Doofus=Dweefus) Only the best people.

Out for now. I will be taking a break from the series for a few days, maybe until next week, but I’ll be back to write before then. Looking forward to inspiration with other ideas. Have a good, peaceful remainder of the week. Thanks for reading.