Ginger Iris Picked from the Garden

Ginger Iris, oil 11 x 14, available

Beautiful yellow ochre iris' are growing in our garden right now. I've never seem an iris this particular color before. 

I tried out the fractured technique again and muted my palette down. 

It rained most of the day today which caused these already droopy flowers to bend over and touch the ground. 

Hoping the rest of these stunning iris' in our garden will bounce back tomorrow after the rain has stopped.

Im looking forward to painting outside tomorrow.

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New App Helps with Choosing Color Palette

I found this app a few months ago after reading an article in a home decoration magazine. I downloaded it to my iphone and occasionally I would play around with it.

It wasn't until this morning that I linked the two ideas together. That is, using this new technology to help evaluate and hopefully improve on creating color harmony within my artwork. For example, the colors yellow and purple are complimentary colors on the color wheel. (that means they are opposites and buy adding the third color which orange is next to yellow it creates color balance. 

Plus, I can see this app as a very useful tool when painting a custom piece based on an existing color scheme of an interior. There are two schools of thinking when choosing artwork to be hung in a residence or commercial. One is, Art is Art and it doesn't have to match your couch. If you love it, buy it. And the other thinking is, Art is one of many elements in a room's decor and it should harmonize with the theme and the rest of the color palette. 

For me, I can go either way. Sometimes I enjoy painting a picture purely for the subject and other times I paint with a specific intention of where this painting will be hung. 

I can now see how valuable this new tool can be for both the artist and designer in me.

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