Picture Profile: Iris bucharica (Corn Leaf Iris). Artist Code 2205.
Artist Code 2205. Started April 2013, completed 9th March 2022. ORIGINAL Water colour on Aquarelle Arches 100% Cotton Rag, 140lbs 10” x 14”
As happens with quite a few of my paintings, this artwork began its life at a refresher course at Cambridge University Botanic Gardens in April 2013. I never manage to complete a piece during the actual course, so this one was put on the back burner for later production.
Whilst checking through all my drafts of botanical work (all waiting to be completed) I came across this draft again in March 2022. Most times I make enough thorough and precise notes in pencil, colour, and writing, to be able to complete a work at a later date. However, when I started working on this one, I realised that there was not enough precise information in my notes and sketches to see some of the detail.
I had written down that this plant grows in Afghanistan and that its name was Iris bucharica (or Corn Leaf Iris), but my failure to attend to the important points of the leaf axil joints and writing down how many petals in the flowers and how they sit together was a really large error.
So the finished article has involved some artistic license (or guesswork), for which I apologise. So I would not deem this to be a “Botanical Illustration” – more a “Flower Painting”.
