Tag: snow

Through Many Seasons

While the peasants needing food and firewood in the past centuries in England were kept off the king’s land, it has left a wonderful legacy of old growth trees, unlike, I understand, in most of Europe. Here in the U.S. we have many old trees, and the wilder parts of our country have many stunning examples.

Personally, I am partial to oak trees because of their oddly twisting limbs and branches. As a kid in the mid-west, I grew up with a forest of oaks behind my house, and these trees have always held a special place in my heart. The Druids found them magical, and so do I. 

There are multiple species, distributed worldwide. Here in California, the overall objective is to give oak trees the protection they deserve, and while property owners can cut down trees, permits are generally required, and woe betide those who fail to follow those regulations. Sadly our fires are killing many.

A return to the theme of snow and winter. Can you imagine what these old trees must have seen through the years and years they have stood? Changes in forest, change in season, spring to summer to fall to the desolation of winter. For me, a tree is more than a tree – it is a legacy of times gone by as well as, in many ways, a hope for the future.

Kilimanjaro 300# cold press paper, 11×14, limited palette of blues, umbers, and siennas.

Winter Farm on Christmas Eve

Now to the northern part of the continent . . . somewhere in North America for winter on the a prairie farm, snow covering field stubble, early evening or morning. Cold, desolate, and heartbreakingly beautiful.

I spent the morning painting this on rough 300# natural white Kilimanjaro. I did it in stages. The sketch was light, with suggestions of shapes. Then the sky was wet and yellow, quin gold, and permanent alizarin crimson used to create the rosy golds. Once down, cobalt blue and ultramarine were placed to simulate sky being careful not to merge into the rose gold of the central cloud. As the sky dried, purple and alizarin were mixed with ultramarine to create the darker clouds. 

After the clouds were laid in, I did the dark trees, blurring some green into the still damp sky, as well as waiting for the sky and soft trees to dry. This was done to create the hard edges needed for the buildings against the tree line. The buildings themselves were left white as the trees dried.

From there, the snowy field was laid in with cobalt and ultramarine in a very light wash and using a 2″ soft brush. Again, drying. At one point, the 2″ brush was dried and dipped into lightly damp burnt umber and applied to make the streaks of brown for field stubble near and far. Then the buildings were done, and once the snow dried, more thin washes as glazes applied to the foreground snow, culminating in a streak of quin gold and then permanent alizarin to the middle of the painting, hoping to show a sense of light reflected in the still dark snow from the breaking clouds above.

After that, details such as dried grasses, windows, tree trunks and whatever were added as deemed necessary.

I am pleased with this painting quite a bit! It achieves what I set out to do – a winter scene, snow, clouds, and patience to wait and think about a painting before just diving in with brush and color. The 300# rough Kilimanjaro is 11×14 and a wonderful paper to paint on. More is needed in the future for sure.

A Winter’s Creek

We have had rain – yay! – and thunderstorms, and threats of tornadoes (which never came) – and puddles of water, and a back yard lake. More to come, perhaps, but gentle and warmer, with a promise of a relatively sunny Christmas. I love the briskness this weather brings, but am also very happy not to have to shovel snow or drive in it. In fact, I was flying through water at intersections the other day, but luckily I am in an area without low lying ground which floods, unlike other areas of the county where people woke up to flooded bedrooms.

So, winter! Winter solstice is come and gone, and in many ways I wish we marked it more with bonfires and merriment, as in the olden days. I paint winter, partly from photos, partly from memory and imagination. 

Probably most of my memories come from upstate New York. No place that I have visited does winter quite like the mixed hardwood and pine forests. Bright green, dark green, barren branches, tall trees. Skies can be sunny and fierce, dull and overcast, and everything in between. Water, whether lake or stream, takes on its own life when frozen, thawed or in between. It still amazes me that fish swim under the ice and amphibians bury themselves in the mud until spring comes.

Happy Solstice!

A Late Winter Afternoon

When I lived in upstate New York, the winters were marvelous! Hardwood forests and pine trees all worked together to create a magical land of light and shadow, rolling snow banks, and winter streams frozen and thawed and frozen again. The skies, too, were amazing in their coldness of light that could reflect so brilliantly on the snowy landscape.

As an adult, snow as a place to live, work, and travel in no longer holds much allure – great to visit, but don’t ask me to wade through it, chisel ice off my windshield, or shovel it just to get out of my house. Still, the memories of those magical winter days in deep winter always hold a spot in my heart for their crisp and intense beauty.

10×14″ Arches Rough, watercolor limited palette of umbers, quin gold, ultramarine blue, and a touch of titanium white gouache.

Snowy Pines Road – Rectangular or Square?

Another afternoon, another bit of time, another gouache. Today, since we are in December, it is time to visit mythological scenes of snow and cold as today we had 70+ F, and tomorrow more of the same with the possibility of fires because of the winds.

I am also in a bit of a dilemma – are the trees too heavy on the left hand side of the painting, or should they be reduced a bit in volume? The only way to do this is to crop the picture, so I did it in Lightroom.

Or is the square one a better painting?

I am rather torn. So, a slide show to compare them side by side. Drag the <> as far as you can left to right if you want to see them . . .

Your thoughts??