First Blog "Purple Fall Iris"

Well here I am posting my very first blog. If you have happened to come across this by chance I hope that you will add me to your list to follow. I am new at this and a bit technology challenged, but I am learning. So please be patient as I learn how to manipulate and navigate through all this.

I've been painting seriously for several months now. When I say seriously I mean that I left(resigned) my position as a teacher in order to pursue a professional career in art. I know probably a not so smart thing to do given the present economy, but I had to follow my heart. So I took a big step in moving out in faith. I love to paint and create!

I've been working realistically and abstractly in acrylics and watercolors. I always seem to come back to watercolors though. I never thought flowers would be something that I would be interested in as subject matter. But after several mentions from others, I decided to work on a few flowers. In fact I thought it might be a bit boring, but I have really taken up a passion to work with them. I've been taking my own photos to work with, so that I genuinely can call my paintings original. I also wondered how this interest in abstract and realism would come together, and I am finding that I can bring the abstraction into the realistic process.

I love zooming in on the flowers to where they become abstract, but yet you can still recognized them as being a part of a flower. A Georgia O'Keefe type of thing. She began painting these huge flowers on canvases, because she believed that New Yorkers needed to take some time and notice the beauty around that was being missed by such a fast pace life. By making them so big they couldn't help but notice, and they became abstract. So, I've been working with this as well.

I'm working on a professional resume. I've raised a family and taught as a Art Educator for over a decade. I am beginning this blog in order to journal this new journey and to encourage others. I have sold a few pieces and it has totally blessed my heart to hear from those people about how much they like and appreciate my work.

This painting that I have posted is titled "Purple Fall Iris". I recently took this photo on an excursion to a nearby park here in Missouri the last few days in September. ( I now have enough photos to last all winter!) This purple iris was in full bloom and was absolutely gorgeous. This week I spent a few days on this painting. I was attracted to the background in this photo because it had these circles which were actually flowers in the background that were out of focus.

I would love to hear any comments you might have!