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.  

Sol's Berry Farm

We live near a bump in the road called Solsberry.    Most people assume that 'Solsberry' is a corruption of Salisbury, named after the city in Wiltshire, England, and that we dumb Hoosiers just couldn't spell. 

They have a point - the town of Gnaw Bone, Indiana is indeed a corruption of the French name, Narbonne. 

Hey.  We don't speak French in Indiana.

Except maybe in French Lick.  Which was named because a French trading post was set up near a salt lick.  But probably, no one has spoken French there in a long time.

Except maybe the high school French class.   And maybe those international students from IU who went to see the casino. 

And my friend in Lafayette [which was named after a French guy].

At any rate, in our case, Solsberry was not named for Salisbury.   It is named for Solomon Wilkerson. 

You see, Sol took advantage of the plethora of wild berries around here and picked and sold them.   People loved Ole Sol's berries.

Yep.   You see where this is going, right?

Sol is memorialized in the Solsberry Cemetery, where you can see his original limestone gravestone [above] and where they've put this beautiful plaque telling his story.   This is what the plaque says:

"Solomon Wilkerson  1800 - 1875. 

Solomon Wilkerson founder of Solsberry, was born in North Carolina in 1800 and moved to Monroe County, Indiana, in 1820 where he married Polly Anderson in 1833.  In 1835 they moved to Greene County, Indiana and erected the first house in what is now known as Solsberry.

In 1850 Solomon platted the site for Solsberry.  It was divided into 34 lots, each of them being 66' x 132'.  The streets were 66' wide and the alleys were 12' wide.   The street running north and south was named Washington, and the street running east and west was named Main.  Because the blackberries and blueberries were plentiful in the area, Solomon picked and sold them; hence the town was name for 'Ole Sol's berries'.

Solomon was held in high esteem, serving as Justice of the peace for several years.  In 1875 he died after being thrown from a horse near Bateman Ford, on Richland Creek, northwest of Solsberry."

Here's a closer up pic of the original marker.  It's a good thing it's protected - the limestone is melting away with time and exposure to the elements.

Sol has a facebook page, where you can go see a picture of him.  

Here is an old map of Greene County from 1879, just 4 years after Sol died.   See if you can find Bateman Ford on Richland Creek.


There's not much left of the town except an intersection and a cluster of houses.   We have a post office and a fire station and Yoho General Store.   [You ought to stop by Yoho and get some ice cream - it's tasty!]  The folks who live here are super friendly so wave when you come to town.  You'll get a smile and a long chat if you have the time.

Yoho General Store, Solsberry, Indiana

Our local general store is open again!

Yoho's got a makeover this year.  She's beautiful!  

I was only ever in the store twice in my life before the big makeover.  Once in 1994 when we moved out here and needed to grab a bite to eat and once a few years later one icy winter day after I put my car in a ditch just down the hill - before the advent of cell phones - and I needed to use their phone.

Let's just say that the visits were a cultural experience.   It was like stepping back into the 1940s.  It doesn't look like that anymore and I'm a bit sad about it, but it's nice and clean inside, up to code with no holes in the floor.    The staff is friendly and the ice cream is great!

Because the place was so old, a lot of it just had to be removed and replaced from the ground up.   I learned a lot about foundations watching them lift the remaining structure and put in a good foundation.


There was a lot of effort that went into making new doors that looked just like the old ones.  

And there's a new sign. 

And wheelchair ramps.

And a window that opens so you can be outside and order your treats.

And a gas pump!    This is very exciting for those of us who have late night gas or diesel needs but who don't want to drive 20 miles into town to get it.   Rumor has it that you can pump gas 24/7!  

Plus, plus!, we could actually walk the 4 miles to the store in a big emergency and get gas to power our generator if we had to.  

Rural awesomeness!

During the grand opening weekend, they had a display of old yearbooks from the high school that used to be close by. 

This one's from 1946.  

And this one's from 1957.  Love that Jetsons-esque graphic.

They have a bunch of old photos of 'downtown' Solsberry around the store.   I loved them.

Across the street from Yoho used to be a place called Dutch's Cafe.    At the back of this store, there is a wall menu from that cafe.   I don't know if it's original, but it's way cool!

They kept the old potbelly stove that has been in the store forever.   It's no longer in use as a coal stove, but it's got a light in it so it looks like it is.  There are a few little tables and chairs nearby so you can sit and visit and eat a snack. 

They carry plenty of bread/milk/eggs for quick grocery needs, plus snacks and sundries.   Including motor oil if you need some.

There's a deli that serves breakfast and sandwich items and they have great ice cream.

Stop in and say hello!   Pick up one of these Yoho General Store shirts or hats and have your picture taken next to the stove.

It's a fun place to be and a great way to celebrate a local rural treasure.

While you're there, notice the Post Office a couple of doors down.   It's been there forever and delivers to a 70 mile area, to customers in three counties!   Our postmaster and carriers work hard for us.

Yoho General Store
Address:  Highway 43,  downtown, Solsberry, Indiana.
Phone:  (812)  825-7834

Business hours:
Monday - Saturday:  7am -8pm
Sunday:  noon - 6pm

Solsberry Cemetery

This is the sign on the road that leads to the Philpot Cemetery just down the way from us.   I laugh every time I see it, and I've been saving this pic for today.  

Happy Halloween! 

To celebrate this day of the dead, we went to another local cemetery, Solsberry Cemetery, just off Highway 43, north of Solsberry, Indiana.     It's a wonderful old cemetery, still in use, with graves dating from the mid 1800s.   

Pretty, isn't it!

The vast majority of the old gravestones here have been carved out of limestone.  Many of them are signed by the carver, T H Sudbury, Bloomington.     This is the grave of Lizzie E. Thompson, wife of William E. Thompson.  She was 21 years, 5 months and 22 days old when she died on January 19, 1880.    It must have been cold when they dug her grave and buried her.   I wonder what she died of.

Click the pic and check the bottom right of the stone for Mr. Sudbury's signature. 

We found more interesting carving on the gravestone of John Cox.   He was born January 3, 1821 and he died April 17, 1891.   What changes he must have seen all around him during his life.   He lived through the Civil War.  


I love his epitaph, way down at the bottom:  Farewell my wife and children all, from you a father Christ doth call.

I also love this gravestone because of the carving in the center.   It's faint, but still visible.  

Here was another gravestone that I loved.   This is on the grave of 3 year old Nellie Torrence.  She was  born July 3, 1884 and she died August 2, 1887.   Her epitaph is:   Buried on earth to bloom in heaven.  

So sweet.    She is buried next to her sister Ruth, who died at 2 yrs old. 

The most interesting stones we found were a couple of stones shaped and carved by hand out of the local creek rock.   It's a miracle they've lasted all these years.   

Here is the stone for L M Newton.  No other information.    What did L M die of?   Who carved the stone?    Were they too poor for a limestone marker?     These graves are mixed in with the others, and not separated in another section as if they were in the pauper's part of the cemetery.

This is the gravestone of Hannah May.   Her name is misspelled on the stone:  Hannh May.    She was born Jan 25, 1817.  She died Sept 6, 1855.   

We love our local cemeteries.  They are so peaceful and they tell such interesting stories.   Check out my post from last year to see Philpot Cemetery. 

Sunflowers

Just off Highway 43 south on the way into Solsberry,  just past the Solsberry Cemetery, where old Sol who owned the berry patch that Solsberry is named after is buried, there is long row of sunflowers. 

Last year there were just two rows.   This year there are 4 rows of different kinds. Not as tall as last year, but so beautiful in that long long line along the road. 

They weathered the heat and drought and bloomed briefly and I got a pic at their brightest. 

Yoho Gets a Makeover

The heart and soul of downtown Solsberry, Indiana is Yoho's store.

It's been there forever.

The second story was the local Mason's meeting place.   You used to be able to see the symbol under the peak of the roof.

Mr. Yoho died last year and the place has been bought by Cook to be restored and reopened this fall as a little grocery just like it's been for decades.    [We hope they add an ice cream parlor!]

This is what it looks like this summer.

They had to rip out the ancient underground gas tanks.   Rumor has it that they're going to put some new tanks in.   That'd be fabulous!

We're impressed that they're doing a restoration rather than a knock down and let's start over from the ground up project.

The foundation had issues.

It was built on limestone blocks.   Big blocks.

Not exactly a continuous foundation.

The crew had to jack up the building and slide a bar under the sill plate to support things while they laid a cinder block foundation between the old foundation blocks.   Then they removed the old blocks.

They're taking their time.

It's so exciting!