Five Haybales, Evening

© Robin Edmundson, 'Five Haybales, Evening', watercolor, 18 x 24 inches. 

$750. Framed to 26 x 32 inches.

A larger version of my favorite haybales this year.  Our late afternoon/evenings are hot and even the shadows glow just before the sun goes down.  

This was a delicious exercise in glazing and harmonies.   I started it a couple of weeks ago and it sat with just the sky and trees for a long time.   Then a bit here, a glaze there, a shadow here, another glaze there and it slowly came together.  

Frost Stops at the Edge of the Woods

©Robin Edmundson, 'Frost Stops at the Edge of the Woods', watercolor, 11 x 16 inches.
Framed to 16 x 20 inches.  $395.

Our first few fall frosts are lovely blankets of sparkle that always stop just at the edge of the woods. The fields are white with a faint undertone of greens and the woods sparkle with fall color. 

At first glance in this piece, the temptation is to wonder why the trees have been cut off at the tops, but this piece isn't about the trees.  

This piece is about the transition space at the at the edge of the woods, where the leaves still cling to the trees and the temperatures stay a little warmer.  It's about what's happening at the feet of the trees. That's where the magic is happening.

I love the edge of the woods. We so seldom look there. We look at the trees, at the grass, at the frosty field, but we rarely look at that space where the frost ends because the warmth of the woods held it back. I love that space.

Bottoms

©Robin Edmundson, 'Where the Ironweed meets Helianthus and Goldenrod', watercolor, 18 x 24 inches. 
Framed to 24 x 30 inches.   $750

The bottomlands are where the muck is. They are the flood plains. Where the creeks overflow.  Where the flood debris collects.  Where the silt get dumped.  Where damp things molder and decay.

Many times during the year, the bottoms are impassable - soft, muddy, wet.

But when late summer comes and they are mostly dried out, they explode with color. It's easy to wax poetic this time of year - these areas are ridiculously gorgeous.  Fields full of purple ironweed and goldenrod.  Acres of helianthus and Queen Anne's lace.   The roadsides are blue with lobelia and blue mist flower.  Jewelweed sparkles orange and yellow in the shade.

And on cooler mornings, when the mist rises off the ponds, the colors sparkle with dew and we know how lucky we are to live here.

Catching that Morning Frost of Early Spring

©Robin Edmundson, 'Lyons Barn, Spring Morning', watercolor, 18 x 24 inches. 
Framed 26 x 34 inches. $750

It's a goal of mine to try to capture the light of different times of the year and different times of the day.  I love the way the light plays off the tiny little leaf tips in the trees, off the run-off in the hollows, off the new grass.   In this piece, I was working on that moment when golden morning light rakes across the hills on an early spring day when the frost is still blue in the low spots.

Goose Pond, February Fields - Plein Air

© Robin Edmundson, 'Goose Pond, February Fields - Plein Air', watercolor, 9 x 12 inches.

I went to Goose Pond again a few days ago and was so happy that the sun was shining this time.  Also, there were thousands and thousands of sandhill cranes that kept flying over.   I love that.   

My goal for these plein air sessions is to be able to focus enough to quickly find a composition from the vast landscape, get the drawing and painting going and to finish within 2 1/2 hours.   I did this one in under 2 hours and am pretty happy with the composition.   Practice, practice, practice!

My Indiana Home Magazine

My Indiana Home magazine has used some of my artwork in the spring issue!

At first they planned to use a couple of pieces in the calendar section.

During planning,  their needs changed and when I got my copies of the magazine this week, they had given me this little blurb and featured one of my paintings of spring fields instead. 

That works for me!  Here is the text:

'Robin Edmundson has been painting the rural landscapes of Indiana since 2014. Having spent most of her life in Indiana, Edmundson now lives on 40 acres near Solsberry, in Greene County and spends a lot of her time focusing on the landscape around her.

After spending many years photographing and blogging about her life in rural Indiana, Edmundson felt she still couldn't capture the landscape the way she wanted, so she tried a new medium. She studied color theory for years and she applied her knowledge to creating beautiful watercolor paintings featuring Indiana landscapes.  The ultimate goal of her paintings is to celebrate the people and places involved in everyday rural life.'

© Robin Edmundson,'Henbit Fields #2', watercolor, 10 x 14 inches.

This is the painting featured.

More information about this piece HERE.

Mustard Fields #1

After the henbit is done blooming in last year's bean and corn fields, the wild mustard takes over.   It is spectacular.   Even my youngest paused to say wow when we drove by one last week. [Actually, she said more than that - it was not G-rated, but pretty hilarious.  Swearing is our second language and we speak it fluently.]

I painted this one, hated it and tried another.   When I was done with that one [tomorrow's post], I put them away.   When I came back, they had magically improved some.  That chartreuse is pretty intense, but it sure is fun.

Palette:  Raw umber, French ultra blue, new gamboge, Hansa yellow lt., sap green, and a bit of Mission bt sienna.

Henbit Blooming #2

© Robin Edmundson, 'Henbit Blooming #2', watercolor, 10 x 14 inches.

This is a second version of the scene I posted a few days ago.   The first was a bit too pink.  I toned down the fields a bit and used cerulean in the sky instead of cobal teal.   I'm still learning how to put different types of texture in a scene.  The sides of the road were my focus here.

View at the End of the Road

This is the view at the very end of our walk, where we turn around and head back home.   I like to moo a loud greeting to the cows.

They ignore me.