A Great Addition to My Favorite Flower...

"Royal Iris" 7"x 5" watercolor on "Aquabord" c. 2013

Last summer when we were living in Dresden, Germany, I was searching for a subject to use as a "thank you" painting for our excellent landlords, the Sobotta family.  After a year there, Jeff was finishing up his Master's degree and we knew that soon we would be looking towards our next move.

The Sobotta's yard usually had some charming seasonal flower blooming and I noticed this lovely royal purple irises.  I adore Irises.  I like the sparkle of their petals and and the complicated play of sun and shadow on them, plus all the variety of colors.  They always remind me of summer in Utah where I grew up.

I actually prefer painting flowers in watercolors, but one of my biggest complaints about watercolors in all the fuss it takes to frame them.  I had found a possible solution, a painting panel by Ampersand that is called "aquabord".  You can just varnish your watercolor like an oil painting, which means no mat-cutting and no glass!   I was itching to try it out.   The result is this little painting "Royal Iris".
 
I really liked the aquabord.  My favorite thing was that it was easy to lift color and re-do a section, something that can be really frustrating on paper.  I also think the colors seem more brilliant.  I am attaching a link to their site just in case anyone else has been looking for a similar solution.

http://www.ampersandart.com/aquabord.html