Blue & Purple flowers

© Robin Edmundson, 'Blue & Purple Flowers' 959, watercolor, 9 x 12 inches.  Framed $300.

I can't wait for summer flowers in the garden.  Can't.  Wait.

The spring irises came and went and the roses are almost done.  I've got phlox and penstemon.  The veronica has just started and there are big buds on the echinacea and snapdragons.   I can feel them calling me to get ready.

What are your favorite flowers? 

Course Review - Ian Roberts' 'Brushwork & Color' Course

Earlier this month, I finished a Brushwork & Color painting class with Ian Roberts.  It was transformational.

There were a few challenges:

• Ian is an oil painter and all the demos were in oil.  I am a watercolorist, not interested in working with oil.
• We had a specific set of primaries to use.
• I am an inveterate comparer of my work to others'.  This does not go well for me. 
• I wanted to stay caught up despite a number of other things going on:  big house projects, kids dealing with covid & college/job stresses, my own job, etc. 

Some of my aha! moments:

• A good Standard Operating Procedure will get you a decent painting regardless of whether you're having a bad day or a bad attitude.  Follow the SOP.  
• Green in bright sunlight can be represented by a number of colors that aren't actually very green.
• Start by thinking about the focal area; let the rest fall into place after that.
• You can't ignore backgrounds.
• Sometimes the 6th version is when you get it.
• Value studies are very enjoyable.  I don't need an excuse to do them.   [I feel a series of value studies in purple coming on....]
• I'm better at still life than I think I am.
• It is perfectly acceptable to mix all the colors I need to get a color/effect, despite the watercolor 'rule' to never mix more than 2 or 3. 
• Purple vines are freaking awesome. [I already knew that.]
• Evening light goes really pink.
• I know my watercolor pigments well and have an excellent grounding in color theory.  I can trust my choices in primaries that are appropriate for watercolor. 
• It is possible to paint flowers in large simple masses and have it work
• Consider everyone's piece on its own merit, not on how closely it matches the ref photo.  Look for the genius in their work.
• Goal:  Sing the song on the paper, with gusto, my way.   It doesn't matter how everyone else is painting the same scene.

Now that the course is over, I'm formulating my goal for the next few months.  It will probably have something to do with working through my own reference photos and seeing if some of the bad ones can be salvaged.  [Seriously,  Ian had us working with nothing but greeeeeeen ref photos that had good bones, and showed us ways of tweaking them to make them really interesting.  I am sure I can find ways to do that with my own ref photos.]

Here is some of my work from the course: 

Value Study

Muting Color: Still Life with Squash

Muting Color Exercise 2

Limited Palette: Purple/Blue instead of greens.

Painting Light 1

Painting Light 2

Poppy Field

Daisies

Winter Barn, Purple Shadows

© Robin Edmundson, 'Winter Barn, Purple Shadows', watercolor, 10 x 14 inches
Framed to 18 x 22 inches. $375

The shadows this winter have been really interesting.   It's been so wet that there is a perpetual haze in the woods and it's been so cloudy that the shadows aren't their typical winter blue.  I've enjoyed the challenge and have been happily experimenting with new color combinations.   This one made me particularly happy. 

Winter Bean Field

© Robin Edmundson, 'Winter Bean Field', watercolor, 10 x 14 inches.
Framed 18 x 22 inches, $375

I've been really studying our winter fields this year.  Cornfields retain a lot of gold, even after harvest.  Bean fields turn luscious umbers.   On cloudy, misty days, the woods, clouds and shadows turn all the shades of purple.  The subtleties are breathtaking and make for interesting play in the studio. 

The Barn with all the Windows

© Robin Edmundson, 'Orange Barn, Purple Windows', watercolor, 10 x 14 inches.  $375.

We found this barn just east of Beehunter Marsh in Greene County.   It's gray in real life, but it really does have all those funny windows.  Truth be told, it looks like a face to me now.  Like a barn being transformed into a Halloween jack o' lantern.   

I set it aside for a bit to see if it needed anything else, but it seems quite happy to be done.   All framed and ready to go now.  [Framed to 18 x 22 inches.  Matted in conservation quality mat.]

Violet and Orange

Last time I painted these tanks in a limited palette of cobalt, burnt sienna, raw umber and Fr. ultramarine blue.

It was nice.   Quiet.

This time, I wanted to do a portrait orientation, focus more on the tanks in front of the silos and I wanted to punch up the color.

So I used diox violet, Mission's burnt sienna [which they say is more like a quin gold  deep], quin burnt orange and some cerulean.   Heavy on the violet.

This one is not so quiet.

Painting it made me really happy.   I totally channeled Wolf Khan the whole time.   [Seriously, that guy is A.May.Zing.]  I'll be doing more experiments like these.

For more on Wolf Khan, try this site.