Turquoise Barn

© Robin Edmundson, 'Turquoise barn and haybales', watercolor, 18 x 24 inches.  $750, framed.

I got stuck for a while right around the holidays.  I couldn't seem to paint anything I liked and felt way out of whack.   My mentor, the amazing Susan Webb Tregay, suggested that I focus on barns - lots and lots of barns.   For days I painted barns in all the colors.   I didn't try to make them 'good', I just painted them again and again.  I used the backs of a bunch of paintings in my garbage stack.  I tried new pigments, I tried new color combinations.  I whined a lot.  [A lot.]  But every day I painted more.

One day, it was time to pull out the Big Paper.  You know - the good kind, with acres of white staring at you, daring you to make a mistake.   I dove in, adjusting along the way.  Step back, let it dry, come back tomorrow, get feedback.  Adjust again.  Get more feedback.  Adjust again. 

I'm learning to linger over a piece and to not feel like I have to rush it. 

And in the end, I have this.    And of course I want more feedback - tell me if you think the gravel in the road is working.   I tried something new and I'm not sure how I like it or if it works.

Cross Section of the Road Bed

In case you missed the post a couple of days ago about our Big December Flood, here's a pic of part of the washed out road.   It looked like this in a couple of places.  


What was really cool was the cross section of the road layers that were visible after the washout.  Lily climbed down and took the pic.

You can see the very old road bed [pre-culvert] near the bottom.   They poured concrete over the rocks to stabilize them and you were careful as you drove through the water.   Eventually they filled it up and put the big culvert in and topped it with lots and lots and lots of gravel. 

They grade the road and dump new gravel once or twice a year.