Blue Field Iris

"Blue Field Iris" -- oil on canvas 6x6"  -- Margie Guyot

This was the last paintable iris I could find.  It's one of the many iris I'd dug up from under the trees and moved out into the sun, along my driveway.  After painting some of the newer, fancy varieties, this one seems pretty plain.  I wonder where it came from, what it's history is.  Did it come from somebody's great grandmother?  Next season I'll have to make a search, seeking out some of the older (more subtle) iris growing in backyards.  

When I first dug out the many iris (all of this variety), I'd planted a bunch in a big flower bed I'd created in front of my art studio.  When they bloomed, it was gorgeous.  For about a week.  Then the iris bed looked pretty sad all the rest of the season.  Last year I dug them all out (such a job!) and relocated them all along my driveway, in among the white daisies.  In their place, I planted Russian sage in front of the studio.  Hmmmm....  and now I'm considering moving that, too.  Planting Annabelle hydrangeas in front of the studio.  Flower gardening, to me, is a game of constant movement.....