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Botanical Elegance: Capturing the Architecture of the Bearded Iris

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A vertical digital oil painting of a single purple bearded iris flower with intricate, ruffled petals against a warm, textured golden-brown background. The style is fine art with visible, soft brushstrokes emphasizing light and shadow on the bloom.
Purple Bearded Iris Flower — Digital Oil Painting Framed Art Print

There are flowers that are simple and cheerful, and then there are flowers that feel like complex pieces of architecture. The Bearded Iris falls firmly into the latter category. With their upright "standards" and cascading "falls," they have a structural complexity that is mesmerizing to study. They don't just sit prettily in a garden — they command attention.

Moving Beyond Photography

When I set out to create this piece, a standard photograph felt too literal. It captured the shape, but not the feeling of the flower's velvety texture, or the way light plays in the deep folds of its petals. I turned to digital oil painting techniques to interpret the image — softening the edges, leaning into the interplay of light and shadow.

A Study in Contrast

The composition is built on contrast. The cool, vibrant violet and white tones of the iris pop dramatically against the warm, moody golden-brown background. The brushwork is deliberately textured, giving the piece a rich, old-world feel that bridges the gap between classic botanical illustration and modern digital art.

Bringing Sophistication Home

This isn't just a flower picture — it's a moody, sophisticated portrait. I have made this piece, titled "Purple Bearded Iris Flower Digital Oil Painting," available on my Redbubble shop. It's designed for spaces that need a touch of quiet elegance, and looks stunning as a framed print in a study, a hallway, or above a mantle where its rich colours can serve as a focal point. The image is also available on a range of other Redbubble products if you'd prefer the artwork on a tote, a journal, or a throw pillow.

👉 Purple Bearded Iris Flower — Framed Art Print

View all my work on Redbubble by searching @kornkobart.

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Samoan Youth

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This young man was preparing with his friends for his moment of fame on the stage at the Samoan Village at the Polynesian dance festival called Pasifika in Auckland in March this year. Samoan Youth Canon EOS 20D 1/30sec at f/20 ISO 200 Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm More photographs from the same Pasifika Festival day can be found in my new post, Faces of Pasifika 2007 — A Day at Auckland's Pacific Festival .
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Cool Granny in Her Austin A35 — © John Corney 2026 This one has a real backstory, and I'd like to tell it properly. An Auckland Sighting On one of my annual visits home to New Zealand, I was walking through central Auckland — at the corner of Queen Street and Karangahape Road (K Road, as everyone calls it) — when a small yellow car went past me and stopped me mid-stride. It was a beautifully kept Austin A35, one of the little British runabouts that were everywhere in New Zealand when I was growing up in the fifties and sixties. Driving it was a woman of a certain age with the confident bearing of someone who had been driving that same car, or one like it, for decades. She looked entirely at home behind the wheel. She belonged to the car and the car belonged to her, and neither of them was in any hurry to change. If you know Auckland, that particular corner will register: Queen Stree...
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Cool Granny Has Taken Up Flying — The Little Old Lady Collection Grows Again

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Cool Granny in Her Biplane — © John Corney 2026 Our cool granny is back, and she has done something the family has been quietly worried about for a few months now. She has taken up flying. A Brief Recap for New Readers If you're new to the series: she first appeared in a beautifully kept yellow Austin A35 on the corner of Queen Street and K Road in Auckland , waving cheerfully out the driver's window as she went past. That piece was, in its quiet way, a tribute to my own mother, who in her fifties bought her own motor scooter in Whanganui and never looked back — and to every older woman who has ever decided it was finally her turn. Then she showed up in a pink-and-yellow flame-painted monster truck, waving out the driver's window in exactly the same spirit, but with rather larger tyres. Same silver hair, same coral scarf, same oversized sunglasses. Same little red heart pa...
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