Griffy Lake Plein Air

Griffy Lake, May.  ©Robin Edmundson, Watercolor on paper, 10 x 14 inches.
$350.  Framed 16 x 20 inches.

I have joined the local Plein Air group and have been excited to find that I enjoy plein air painting very much.   I painted this one at Griffy Lake in Bloomington last week to the accompaniment of bird song, soft rain [for just 5 minutes] and the chatter of 150 4th graders.

Let me just tell you that 4th graders are a huge ego-boost.   Every time a group would go by, someone would call out, 'Wow.  You're a really good artist!'.    So sweet!   Let's just hope they grow up to be art buyers as well as art appreciators.

At any rate, I'm trying to really reach for new color possibilities and I liked the way these purple trees turned out.   I'm excited to do more plein air painting with this terrific group.  

Bloomington Watercolor Society Member Show

This Friday [Dec 9, 2016] is the opening of the Bloomington Watercolor Society Member Show in Bloomington, Indiana at the Monroe County History Center on the corner of 6th and Washington Streets.   The show will hang at the History Center until February 21, 2017.

We're so excited.   Claire and I both have paintings hanging in the show and we got a sneak peak of the rest of the show when we dropped ours off.  Many have historical themes and all are amazing.   Feel free to cut and paste the photo above to share with anyone you think would be interested.

© 2016  Robin Edmundson, Storing the Jars, watercolor, 12 x 9 inches

This is the painting that I decided to put in the show.   I hope you get a chance to come see it in person.

The opening reception is this Friday [Dec 9] from 5pm -7pm at the History Center.  Come and meet the artists!  

Storing the Jars

The Bloomington Watercolor Society will be hanging a show from December until February at the Monroe County Indiana Historical Society on the corner of 6th and Washington Streets.

The name of the show is BWS Paints the Bicentennial.   [It's Indiana's 200th anniversary of becoming a state this year.]   We can paint whatever subject we want, but for months I've been thinking about this painting.   I tried painting it a few different ways.   Finally I drew this one, but was too scared to paint it.  I knew in my head how I wanted it to look, but didn't know if I could do it.  So, I tucked it away and forgot about it.   Last weekend I found it and decided to take a deep breath and go for it.   I did it in 4 sittings over 3 days, which is much slower than I usually go.   But I had to get the layers right.  

I started by underpainting the gold light [aureolin] and purple shadows [pthalo blue and perm. alizarin crimson].   After that I worked on the dress, the crocks, the shelves and wall, the dress some more, then the hair, the skin, the box and finally the jars.   I tweaked a lot.

It looks better in person.  There are some things I really like about it - the glass jars, the box, the fact that she actually looks human [whew!]...

I'm trying to decide whether to hang this one in the Bicentennial show or the cornfields [below].  

Opinions?