The Royal Purple Iris

Painted completely within Inkscape - May, 2024

Printed on very thin Japanese Washi paper meeting archival standards

About 20 years ago, a friend gave us some iris bulbs.

We’ve shared them with friends and neighbors.

Each spring, they burst into full color bringing lots of joy to the garden.

The purple iris is my personal favorite - followed by a yellow version.

The print took almost 2 years to create.

I had to develop more refined technique in vector graphics before being able to be satisfied.

When I created the iris’ top, I thought of Paul Klee’s “Witch and the Comb”.

This is not a copy of Klee’s idea - but inspired by it.

After creating the output file, I experimented printing on different papers.

The washi paper softened the lines and provided a background texture (not seen in the jpg file).

Japanese Washi paper is made from a mixture of fibers from the mulberry tree, and other plants.

Originally only handmade, it’s now possible to buy high quality machine made paper.

The production levels of machine made are still small, and very high quality.

Initially I used a thinner Washi paper - which shows even more fibers.

But the thin paper was too hard to handle. Even this thicker paper is still quite delicate.

The final print was made with 12” x 12” dimensions - what is called a “foot print.”

There are two prints at 12” x 12”.