Winter Iris

This painting, Winter Iris, is a meditation on restraint. Capturing the chill and pale colors of an iris that bloomed in my garden in late autumn. It was then caught cold on a sudden freezing winter day. The pewter-cold blue is pale and transparent, alternating with a clay-white that almost looks like a wash. The stripe pattern juxtaposes two white stripes from the center, and alternates the two colors, going north and south. Thus, creating a visual center that is ironically very pale, close to the absence of color.

After years of exploring bright and emotional color fields, I have come back to something simpler. Cooler, primal, in this new series I call, ‘Pastorale’.

–STELIOS author of The Oculus