Spring is late and confused in Montana this year. Everything is about a month behind normal, if anything can be said to be normal these days. However, my purple irises are in peak bloom now.

The tubers were a gift from an artist friend. He had not divided his iris in years so they quit blooming from overcrowding. As he shaped up his property to put it on the market, he ended up with a large surplus of this particular iris and I was the lucky recipient.

This is the first year they have been enthusiastic about blooming here and I am ecstatic. I want to paint more of them and now I have a yard full of the beauties!

The light was lovely on them this morning. We had high thin clouds providing a variety of lighting conditions. I thoroughly enjoyed photographing the flowers from all sorts of angles.

On cold January days I will use these photos to remember the garden as I prepare to paint my irises. Slideshows of several hundred glorious iris will be the perfect launch for those winter paintings.

You can view Fires of Creation, a new painting from this variety of iris.

Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2008. All Rights Reserved.

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