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.

Frostbitten Leaves

©Robin Edmundson, 'Frostbitten Leaves', watercolor, 16 x 20 inches. 
Framed to 20 x 24 inches. $595

On very cold days, while the blue shadows linger, the oranges of oak leaves glow through the heavy frost and light snowfall.  I love that shifting light, that combination of exposure and concealment. 

I've been practicing meeting myself at the paper.  Breathing, working slowly, watching the paint and working with it rather than forcing it to do what I think it should.

The truth is, I have control issues. I am fully aware that I'm a control freak.   One of the reasons I chose watercolor is that it is a life lesson for me.   It does what it wants.  I have to learn to work with it instead of controlling it.  This is really good for me. 

I stick with watercolor because I like the way it makes my brain feel.  Less control, more collaboration.  Less forcing, more interaction.   So I meet myself at the paper and breathe and work one step at a time and then pause until the paint tells me what my next options are. 

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.

Frosty Winter Windows

I have been having so much fun doing winter paintings.   A happy accident showed me how I could make 'frost' on the paint so of course I had to do a bunch of frosty winter windows.

I've done a limited edition series of these winter windows.   Each is an original watercolor with the same composition and palette. Initialed in ink on the front and signed on the back.  Matted and framed.   Framed size is 10 x 8 inches.   $75.


If you're interested in purchasing one, please email me.


...and if you're wanting a little something on that window sill, check out my other one below.

Right now our window sills are full of forcing vases with green shoots [and a couple of early blooming hyacyinths.]  So I thought I'd do a few paintings with a forcing vase in front of that frosty window.

I've done a limited edition series of this composition also.  Each is an original watercolor with this same composition and palette.  Initialed in ink on the front and signed on the back.  Matted and framed.   Framed size is 10 x 8 inches.   $75.

If you're interested in purchasing one, please email me.

Overlooked

It's easy to overlook things.
There are good reasons for overlooking some things.   Focusing on the negative only leads to unhappiness, so it's a good idea to overlook little things that would otherwise harsh your mellow.

Since winter here has been intense, I thought it would be a good idea to pay closer attention to some little things that might help mellow the harsh.  Like frosty dogwoods.

I really love dogwood twigs.   They look like hands reaching up.  And I love dogwood buds because they form early on and are a constant reminder that it won't be icy forever. 

I feel my harsh getting mellower by the minute. 

Frost

Frost.

It's what's for winter. 

Frost Feathers

Here are a couple more pics of our frost.

So pretty.

In this pic especially they look like frost flowers blooming out of the old dried aster calyxes [calyces?] from the fall.   

Amazing.

The Frost Fairy Came to Visit

We get spectacular frost here because it's a pretty humid place generally.   After a big snow, it clears off, the sun shines and melts off some of the snow, then the air saturates. 


If it stays clear, it'll get very very cold overnight. 
 

And then the frost is amazing.

This is hoarfrost. 


Take a look at these beauties.

I have never seen frost this beautiful before.  


Amazing.

Winter Frost

Sun through the frost

One of the prettiest things about a southern Indiana winter is the frost.  



Lily especially loves the frost and will get up and go out at dawn with the camera to record it before it melts away.    These are her latest pics.

Echinacea

Sycamore leaf

Turkey tail fungus

Leaf curl

Sycamore leaves

Pretty

Frosty Everything

Pretty. 

Really pretty.

Frosty Corn

This is something that I have never seen before.   The corn is usually harvested and cut down before the frost.    Since the drought killed the corn early, it was left in the field long after it started frosting.  Now the leaves are down and the corn is still out there.    Slowly it's being cut down - I'm guessing for silage, but I don't know.

Frost on the corn is beautiful.    But I hope I never have to see it again. 

Frosty Leaves

It's the little crystals sticking up off the sparkling edges that get me every time. 

Every.  Time.  

More Gratuitous Frost Pics

We've had a very damp winter.   The higher the humidity, the more spectacular the frost.   Here are more of Lily's frost pics, my edits.

Window Frost

Dude. 

Window frost. 

It's almost worth having winter just to see this frost.

Frosted Nest

Another photo taken by Lily.    She's a whiz with the camera.

Hoar Frost

Wiki has some interesting information about hoar frost, but I like it because it's pretty.  K1 caught some of the beauty on film last week.  

On daylily leaves.

 On a garden sculpture.

On an echinacea seed head.

On the bird feeder.

On foxtail grass.

On a geode.

On sage.

Happy Thanksgiving

May you have a few moments today to notice and appreciate something beautiful.  

Frost, melting on milkweed seeds