Spring flowers

The daffodils are long gone, the irises nearly done.
Next, hoping for my peonies and lilies to come through.

two out of three

I wanted to paint on the deck today, but let it go until too late in the afternoon: the clouds are back. Nonetheless, I did manage to get in a 30-minute session outside painting an iris and a rose I picked in my yard today. (The rose is a McCartney tea rose; if you ever see this variety--get one! My plant is leggy--I'm an inept pruner--but produces huge, extraordinarily fragrant, velvety, Barbie-pink blooms.)
Irises I continue to struggle with--though the one in the middle here is my best yet. I think maybe I see too many: too many folds, too many shades of red-blue-purple, too many intricacies--looking in, through the petals ...
I need to do some Emil Nolde-ish irises to break out of my too careful approach.
I wanted to keep this sketchy, and not lose so much of the drawing, but, I overdid it ... I like the subject though, and with some adjustments, I think I can do it again.

I put the drawing in just because I think it's nicer than the painting; for some reason, the composition seems to work better when it's only lines ... BTW I drew this watercolor pencils, a small set I found in the closet (I lost my more extensive set--which was in a really neat canvas roll-up thingy I bought separately; but I haven't seen one in any of the catalogs recently, so if you know where I can get one, please let me know; so much easier that carrying those tins they come in) on my trip to NM; I think some TSA officer must be an aspiring artist!)