Iris Ensata

Richard Wagener

"Iris Ensata" was honored with the award for Outstanding Engraving from Overseas at the 80th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wood Engravers held at The North Wall Arts Center, Summertown, Oxford, UK.

Wagener engraves his blocks by hand and does not use special multiple line engaving tools to acheive the gradations and textures, such as dotted black background in this image.

The "Iris Ensatat" or "Japanese Iris" is a species of flowering plant of the iris family Iridaceae, native to Japan, China, Korea and Russia, and widely cultivated as an ornamental plant. It grows in temperate zones throughout the world. Upon being introduced to the west in the mid-19th century, a new chapter was opened in the cultivation of this species. In America it was intensively hybridised to produce many new cultivars.