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? 

Pink Poppies

©Robin Edmundson, 'Pink Poppies' 951, watercolor, 12 x 9 inches.  

Framed $300

'Negative painting' is the technique of painting around something to show its shape.   We do this a lot in watercolor, since we can't paint light on top of dark.   We have to paint the dark around the light shape to indicate a light object.   

It takes some practice thinking about things differently, but the effects are outstanding and the process is fun, once you get the hang of it.   

Sunflower & Rose

Confession:  I'm not ready for winter.  So I was happy to find these small floral paintings that I had done over the summer and never posted here.   

I'm thinking you need a bit of cheer, too, right?   I hope these do it for you.

©Robin Edmundson, 'Sunflower', watercolor, 11 x 7 inches. 

Framed to 11 x 14 inches.  $280

©Robin Edmundson, 'Rose', watercolor, 7 x 5 inches. 

Framed to 8x10 inches.  $125

Queen Anne's Lace - Variations on a Theme

© Robin Edmundson, 'Queen Anne's Lace -791', watercolor, 8x10 inches.  

$280, framed.

I have a strong propensity for tweaking.   The more I tweak the darker things get.  In this first piece, I tried to reign in that tendency and put in as little background as possible. 

© Robin Edmundson, 'Queen Anne's Lace -792', watercolor, 8x10 inches.  

$280, framed.

In this second version, I let myself get as dark as I wanted.   I figure this is the best way to figure out what I like best.  Do the two and then put them side by side and think about it. 

The truth is that I like both.  I like the stronger edges of the second one, but I like the delicacy of the first one.    Which means I'll continue to work in a series where I can practice both approaches.   

Double the fun!

Which do you prefer?

Daffodils & Muscari

© Robin Edmundson, 'Daffodils & Muscari', watercolor, 14 x 10 inches.
Framed to 16 x 20 inches.  $375

Spring came this year regardless of the Shelter in Place orders.   The daffodils have been beautiful and my annual applications of bone meal mean more blooms, which makes me really happy. 

The last of the daffs began blooming just as the grape hyacinths [muscari] came on and that blue and yellow combination just makes my heart sing.

What is blooming in your part of the world these days?

Just playing

Once in a while, I paint something on a scrap piece of paper and come back and fall in love with it.  This echinacea will probably be framed and stay in my studio.   Love this one!

This peony was another one.   My sister fell in love with it and it's living with her now.

Four Dancing Echinacea

©Robin Edmundson, 'Four Dancing Echinacea', watercolor, 10 x 8 inches.  

[Available framed, $280]

I was practicing echinacea on scrap paper and tossed this one aside for several weeks.  When I found it again, I loved the motion in it.

This is a wildflower in Indiana, but not around here.  I have planted dozens in the garden and they self sow pretty easily.  They're slowly starting to pop up in the edges of the scrub trees.   Shades of pink and white.  I love them.

Queen Anne's Lace

©Robin Edmundson, 'Queen Anne's Lace', watercolor, 10 x 8 inches.  

[Available framed, $250]

It's flowers all day every day lately.   I've pulled out my favorite catalogs and books and am having a great time playing in the paint.   I was especially happy with these Queen Anne's Lace. 


Here's another one:

Did you know that when the weather is just right, a field full of these smells sooooo good in the afternoon.  It's one of my favorite things about a deep summer walk.  Breathing in that sweet air.

Another little posy of violets

©Robin Edmundson, 'Violets 715', watercolor, 5 x 6 inches.  

[Available framed, $125]

Have another little posy of violets to brighten your day!

'Such a starved bank of moss...'

©Robin Edmundson, 'Violets 714', watercolor, 5 x 7 inches. 

[Available framed, $125]

When I was about 12 years old I came across the Robert Browning poem: 'Such a starved bank of moss till that May morn.  Blue ran the flash across - violets were born!'.

Violets have always been a big favorite of mine and every year when the first violet blooms, I recite that poem to myself.  They usually start blooming in late March or April, but I feel the same delight that Browning did when he wrote that poem. 

Happy Spring!

A big vase of purple and blue flowers - just for you.

© Robin Edmundson, 'Purple Floral', watercolor, 10 x 8 inches.

I've been in the mood for flowers and I've been painting all kinds of them lately.  Big ones, little ones, good ones, bad ones, loose ones, detailed ones.  All the colors. 

The next several posts will be a virtual garden of floral paintings for you.   I hope they make it easier for you to take a deep breath and just be.

Sending big hugs!

Zinnias

© Robin Edmundson, 'Zinnias #4', watercolor, 15 x 11 inches.
Framed to 20 x 16 inches.  $375.

I plant a long row of zinnias every year.  They make me really happy.

I like the big ones.  And the small ones.  Also, the ones that look like cactus flowers and the ones that look like fat pompoms.  I like the red ones, the orange ones, the yellow ones and the pink ones.  And this year I got a couple of white ones that knocked my socks off.

While I was practicing a few versions of this piece, Claire walked in and looked at an early one and said, 'Frame this.  I want it.'   She's allergic to a lot of the outdoors, 'This way I can have them in my room.'   [Of course, I framed hers first.]

This piece and a few more florals will be hanging at my upcoming show at the Vault at Gallery Mortgage in Bloomington, Indiana.  October 2-29, 2019.

Robin Edmundson: Not Far Afield

October 2-29, 2019

The Vault at Gallery Mortgage

121 E 6th Street

Bloomington, Indiana

Gallery Hours:  M-F 9am-5pm

Please join us for the opening reception
Friday Oct 4, 2019
5pm - 8pm

A Record of the Artist Playing

©Robin Edmundson, 'Echinacea Bouquet #4', watercolor, 14 x 10 inches.
Framed to 20 x 16 inches.  $375

"An artist is trying to puzzle something out - to solve a complex problem of perception. A piece of art is the record of the artist playing."  

Jordan Peterson, podcast

Eric texted me that quote the other day as I was on my 4th version of this composition.  I love that quote because it describes my relationship with my artwork exactly.  

I wrestle a lot with my work - working out color, playing with light, coming up with a strategy for composition.  I experiment with this and that.  The relationships between color, light, line, shape and mood are complicated and a small adjustment here or there can have a large effect on the final piece.  I ruin one and then start again. Try something new.  Or not - and realize after the third version with the same yuck results just exactly where I should try something new and break out of a pattern that just isn't working.   

Yes.  Sometimes it takes me more than three versions to get that through my head.

The middle stages are the worst.   I've ruined a lot of paintings and then, with some, felt the urge to keep going through the miserable middle until I realized that it wasn't really ruined - it just hadn't been quite finished.   There's an art to recognizing when something needs more work and when something needs to be let go of.  I'm still figuring that out.  

As an artist, I play with many solutions to the problem of communicating a scene in a way that you can decipher the message I'm sending.   I perceive something in the three dimensional world and then encode it into a two dimensional space in a way that allows you to look at it and decode it to understand what I'm seeing and saying.  

It sounds crazy, right?   Artists often walk the line between brilliance and insanity.  In the meantime, an artist plays and each piece of art is a record of that play.

Florals

© Robin Edmundson, 'Black-eyed Susans', watercolor, 14 x 10 inches.
Framed to 22 x 18 inches.  $375

A while back I did a painting of a large floral bouquet in teals and pinks.  I hadn't set out to do a floral.  I thought I sucked at florals.  In fact, I knew I sucked at florals. 

I couldn't do florals.   I paint barns.  I don't paint flowers.

And yet there I was painting a floral - a really big one at that.  And you know what?  People love that painting.

It's hanging at my current show in Marshall, Illinois and it's one of the first pieces that people walk over to see and comment on.

So. 

Clearly I can do florals.  But I still feel like I can't do florals.   So I tried another floral.  That's it up there.

It actually looks like flowers.  And I actually feel pretty pleased looking at it.  So I'm taking this as a sign that I need to practice more florals.  Figure some things out.  Let myself play with colors and shapes and refine what I already know about composition and shadows.  [And flowers, because I'm an avid gardener and actually know quite a lot about flowers]

These paintings force me to relax.  To do things slowly.  Very very slowly.   To stop and step back and consider.  To take 3 or 4 days to work through a dozen layers, adding a bit at a time.  To take my time.  To trust my eye. 

That feels really good. 

Lavender

©Robin Edmundson, 'Lavender-547', watercolor, 9 x 6 inches.
Matted and framed to 10 x 8 inches.  $95.

These summer florals make me so happy.  It's a great way to practice capturing the essence of a plant. I love all the herbs, but lavender makes me happy on a cellular level.   

Our lavender is pretty happy.  There were a few plants that suffered greatly from the affection of the dog.  Turns out that Pepper loves sleeping on lavender. [Who can blame her?]    Several of our bushes were crushed and had to be pruned way back, but they are mostly recovering and we're trying to find a way to protect them from her attention again this year.  

Bigger

©Robin Edmundson, 'Tetrad Floral', watercolor, 24 x 18 inches. 
Unframed.  $600.

For much of my life I have tried to live under the radar.  It was safer that way.

There were a lot of rules:

• Don't show off
• Shine, but not too brightly
• Be great at what you do, but not the best
• Let men be the leaders and always defer to what they say
• Smaller is better [translation:  Lose weight, lots of weight]
• Invisible is good
• Never ask for attention
• Don't be proud of what you do
• Big work = Big [very visible] mistakes. Work small so your mistakes are small

These rules are all shame-based and for 50 years, I was really, really good at shame.  I'm breaking a lot of these rules lately. 

I don't want you to think that I just woke up one morning and said 'Screw the rules!' and made some changes. Confronting a lifetime of shame and changing how you think [about everything!] takes a lot of courage. A lot of time. A lot of patience.  A lot of great teachers.  And a lot of baby steps.

One of these baby steps was to decide to paint bigger.  Risk bigger, visible failures. So, I bought a few blocks of larger paper so I can work in an 18 x 24 inch format, which I have found that I love.  I've been trying new subjects [more florals] and I've been playing big.  And making big mistakes.  And I don't care [as much as I used to. :)]  The painting above is one of my new, larger pieces.  It started as a color experiment while I was teaching a Color Harmonies class here at my studio.  At one point, I 'ruined' it but I kept working on it.  It was so freeing to work on that lovely big paper! Bonus - I think I'm doing better work.

Working bigger is helping me to take the next step in my healing process.  Working bigger lets me see that I can, maybe someday, live bigger and heal bigger.   

That's big.  

Golden

© Robin Edmundson, 'Goldenrod', watercolor, 10 x 14 inches. 

The light was golden as I finished this piece today.  I've been working on it off and on for a couple of weeks now, wondering exactly when to stop.  I smiled when I realized that's constant theme once the holiday season kicks off. 

This year, I've decided to stop at 'Grateful'.  For so many things.  Thanks for stopping by to share a bit of your day with me.   Here's to many more conversations about art and life.

Chicory

© Robin Edmundson, 'Chicory 2', watercolor. 
5 x 7 inches, framed to 9 x 11 inches.  $95.

My friend, Eve, asked me if I'd tried painting chicory.  I hadn't. What a great reason to try.

Chicory is a roadside staple out here.  It grows in every dry boulevard and ditch and blooms a glorious blue from late June through September. 

© Robin Edmundson, 'Chicory 1', watercolor. 
7 x 5 inches, framed to 11 x 9 inches.  $95.

I used phthalo blue and dioxazine violet for the flowers.  Sap and Undersea greens with a bit of raw sienna for the greenery.

I'm loving that blue.

© Robin Edmundson, 'Chicory 3', watercolor. 
9 x 6 inches, framed to 15 x 12 inches.  $150.

Now that they're matted and framed and look all dressed up, I'm wondering what small florals should I try out next?

Ironweed & Friends

© Robin Edmundson, 'Ironweed, Black-eyed Susans and Lobelia', watercolor, 11 x 14 inches.
Unframed, $250.

When it comes to roadside flowers, I think my favorite time of the year is August and September.  Ironweed is spectacular.  Add to it the oranges of black-eyed Susans and jewelweed, and the blues of the blue mist flower and swamp lobelia and you have gorgeous views in every ditch and field.   I love living here.

It's a good opportunity to practice florals and I have taken advantage.   Don't be surprised to see more of these.