Saturday, December 18, 2010

Snow!



We had a little snow at the first of the week and it gave me a chance to do a little inclement weather painting. Got two snow paintings in and the icy grey painting above. Sleeting sideways on that one. Brrr. The reason you don't see the other snow painting is the fact it didn't do what I had try to make it do. I was trying to paint looking into the sun on a sunny clear day and there was this wonderful glare on the snow and when I set up on it I wasn't quite sure if I could pull it off and the little doubt in the back of my head soon became a hard cold fact. I couldn't figure out what I needed to do to get that eye squinting glare. I tried darkening values around it, changing temperatures, blurring edges, etc., etc. Pulled out all the tricks. To no avail. Got it home and tried some more. I think I have mentioned before that if I try to fix them at home I wreck 'em. This is the one thing that I am artistically very consistent at.

6 comments:

Keith Tilley said...

Nice work, especially the second one which must have been difficult in the sleet.

It's a shame about the second snow paintng, but it sounds like a really difficult subject and you can't win them all.

greggart said...

Thanks Kevin,
They both are sweet. The first is a great composition...should make that one larger. The second one looks like Idaho. Bummer about the third but at least you knew it wasn't working. I hate it when you think you nailed, come home and realize....this stinks.

Jesse said...

#1 has some really nice angles and movement. I would say 2 out of 3 is definitely not bad.

I have about a 90% kill rate when I work on plein air at home. Still, I like to try it, feels educational.

Kevin Menck said...

Keith - I understand you guys may have had a" little" snow there in the UK. It makes the news here almost everyday. I expect some snow scenes soon.

Greg - Yeah, I think I should pull the plug sooner than I do. Sometimes I will try and try to save one knowing in the beginning it's not going to make it. What a waste of time.

Jesse - You would be surprised how educational a bad painting is. I learn more from the ones I screw up than the keepers.

Chris Ousley said...

Kevin, you must me a genius by now then! pffft!!! Just kiddding. Good works as usual. I always like your snow paintings.

Kevin Menck said...

Arr harrr harrr. Good one.
Touche Ouser.