Yellow and White Iris

Yellow and White Iris
Oil on wood panel, 5x7
purchase here

This iris brings back sweet memories from my childhood.  It is one of my grandma's varieties that has always grown by the cellar.  I can remember playing out there with my brother, running around with "dawn" bottles full of water - squirting each other until they were empty!  The large, beautiful iris heads would blow back and forth in the wind, almost as tall as I was!  I have always had a love of flowers.  My first art memory is of drawing a vase of flowers on a colonial table, with a picture window behind them - for my mother.  I was four years old at the time.  I still remember the smell of the wooden window sill of that window.  I also remember the feel of sinking my little teeth into that same window sill, and the dusty taste of it.  Isn't that funny?  Mom would often put fresh flowers in a clear glass vase in front of that window.  She always had flowers in the garden, as did my grandma, and I remember every one.  I also have varieties from my Grandma Lynn, Grandma Bessie, my Grandma Frank's neighbor - the Ruhls, and a few from my Aunt Diana.  Flowers are little gifts that keep giving every year as they spread and bloom anew.  I am so fortunate to have the room to allow them grow and spread at will.  If they ever start to crowd, I can simply move them out to the pasture and hedgerows!  Painting number 866 in 866 days :)