a luminescent white Iris

Hi there! I hope you had a great weekend! While Scott and I were in the Los Angeles area for a weekend get away recently, we visited the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. We photographed so many beautiful flowers including the white Iris shown below: 

I've seen so many beautiful paintings featuring various Iris's which inspired me to try to paint this magnificent flower. I referred to one of The Beauty of Oil Painting books by artist Gary Jenkins as I painted this luminescent white Iris on an 8" x 8" gessoed board using acrylics for the background and oils for the rest:

I was pleasantly surprised with my first attempt but I can definitely see where I need to make stroke improvements. I squeezed out more than enough paints on the palette so I'm going to make good use of it and have another go.

Here's what the background looked like before I painted the Iris and foliage. As you can see, I sketched the Iris prior to painting the background:

For color inspiration, I joined along with the Color Throwdown color challenge:

I'm also linking to Paint Party Friday:

Many thanks for stopping by ~ I hope you have a great day!
Be Sweet ;)