Beehunter Creek Series

 ©Robin Edmundson, 'Beehunter Creek, purple', watercolor, 16 x 20 inches.  $475, unframed.

I'm doing a thing this year where I work from one reference photo and spend the year painting it so at the end of the year I have several versions and can let myself experiment in all the ways. 

The reference photo was taken last March on a cloudy day.  Mostly beige, but I love the lines. It's a good photo to work from.  I want to emphasize here that the point is *not* to copy the photo, but to use it as a jumping off point.  

This means that I'll leave things out, simplify, go crazy with color, experiment, paint different sizes, etc, and if I drift away from the literal, that's ok - great, even!  [In the ref photo, there was a large tree branch coming in from the left.   I left it out completely.]

©Robin Edmundson, 'Beehunter Creek - 856', watercolor 8 x 10 inches.  $190, unframed.

©Robin Edmundson, 'Beehunter Creek', pencil study, 4 x 6 inches. 

I have a couple more paintings of this scene already in the works and I'll post them as they're done. 

Five Haybales: Afternoon

© Robin Edmundson, 'Five Haybales, Afternoon', watercolor, 10 x 14 inches.   $375.

Another in the 'Five Haybales' series.   This was the original 'light' intended for the composition.   I'm kind of loving those puffy afternoon clouds.  

Five Bales: A series

© Robin Edmundson, 'Five Bales, Dawn', watercolor, 10 x 14 inches.  $375.

Once in a while, I explore the same composition a bunch of times with different colors, different lights.  Working in a series with a strong composition lets me focus on other things than the shapes and composition; it frees me up to explore a lot of other things.  

In this series, I painted these five haybales in different light/times of day.  It was a lot of fun.  Over the next few days, I'll show you my favorites.

This first one started out with a 'What if I started with a wash of neutral gray?'   It quickly developed into a sunrise/dawn scene and I just went with it.  I walk at sunrise a lot in the summer and the light is very familiar to me.  

Color Experiments: Anatomy of a Series, Part 2

Check out my last post for full details on how this series started. 

The last draft of this painting was this one.

© Robin Edmundson, 'Solsberry Pond #2', watercolor, 10 x 14 inches, unframed.

The next step was to paint the landscape again using the colors from this yarn:  

I used a lot of French ultramarine blue and dioxazene violet.   I love those colors!

© Robin Edmundson, 'Solsberry Pond #3', watercolor, 10 x 14 inches, unframed. 

There are a lot of things I like about this painting, but I wanted to try one more time to see what would happen if I softened the darks a bit, added more orange and tried out a couple of other different things.  

© Robin Edmundson, 'Solsberry Pond #4', watercolor, 10 x 14 inches, unframed.

Of the four, which one do you like best?  

I will be doing more work like this.  It was a lot of fun to tweak a landscape to the colors I've been dyeing with for the last 20 years.  

This series will be on display and for sale at The Vault at Gallery Mortgage from August 4 - September 29, 2017.  Bloomington, Indiana. 

Color Experiments: Anatomy of a Series, Part 1

One of my artistic goals lately has been to paint my landscapes using colors from my hand-dyed yarns.   It's been a great way to think about things differently and to punch up a ho-hum landscape.

Plus, it's been so much fun using colors that I've been using in my dye shop for decades in a whole new way.

Here is my photo inspiration - A local pond off the highway.  Now remember, I am in no way trying to paint a photorealistic copy of the reference photo.   That's what photographs are for.   I'm going to try to paint that landscape in a new way.

Here is my yarn inspiration:

This is my fine bamboo yarn in the colorway, Vineyard.   I've been wanting to use these colors in a landscape for a while.   

The first thing I did was paint the reference pretty close to what's actually there.   I like to really focus on the lights and darks and large shapes.   

© Robin Edmundson, 'Solsberry Pond #1', watercolor, 10 x 14 inches, unframed. 

In the next draft, I softened out some of the colors and played with the shapes, still trying to get a feel for the light and composition.  That's a lot of foreground, so I shortened it up a bit.

© Robin Edmundson, 'Solsberry Pond #2', watercolor, 10 x 14 inches, unframed.

Not a bad start.   In the next post, I'll show you #3 and #4, with the colors from the yarn.  

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.