A painting of irises in acrylics. Step by step photos.

I have just finished my latest floral painting.  I have used irises as the chosen flowers. I find the shapes so interesting.  I have taken many photos of irises over the years at garden shows, famous gardens and my own, slightly less famous garden!  

Using the photos for reference I planned a simple composition on the canvas. I painted in some basic colours using acrylic paint. I wanted to show a mixture of the open flowers and the flower buds.

The next stage was to break up the background with some irregular stripes. This emphasized the vertical stripes made by the stems and leaves.

I then worked in to the background quite a lot. I used a mixture of different blues, magenta's , pinks and purples to create a detailed and layered dotty background. I have also started to break up the surface of the leaves and stems with different greens.

My next stage was to work some detail in to the actual flowers. This was done with small dabs of paint. I also increased the layers of green on the leaves and stems, using a swirling pattern of shapes that reflected the way I had painted the background .

Following this I next decided to break up the surface with some long thin swirly grass like plants.

I am now working in more detail to all areas of the painting. I have added more grass areas and worked in to the buds.

And here it is, the final painting. I have just finished off small details and modified some areas of colour.

Please leave a comment. I love to hear opinions on my work.

This one will be going up for sale soon. I shall add details below when I do this.