I know the snow paintings have a reputation of not selling well, but to me they are the most fun to paint. I love how the landscape looks with snow on it. I'm sure if I lived up north in, say, Alaska, I might grow to hate it. Too much of a good thing. But since I don't see a lot, I just love it. I will say this though. Since I don't see a lot or paint a lot I have a hard time rendering it. It's tough.
I looked up a painter named T. Allen Lawson when I got home after finishing the painting above. I think he handles snow as well as anybody. His snow paintings are beautiful. What I see in his paintings is what I see when I am out there, especially on a grey day like we have had for the past week. There is not a lot of color to the snow fields, a pretty consistant color of grey that leans toward a plum(?) maybe. It has red as well as the blue. And real tight value shifts and temperature changes. I have a habit of making it too blue and then over correcting and making it too warm creating this wonderful muddy effect. There is a precision to a grey snowfield, that perfect value and temperature that if you miss by a little, it reeks.
The painting above was done about two miles from my home. There is an area near where I live that they have been able to keep some of the old dry stack stone walls, some I assume are from pre-civil war, and when the snow is on top of them they are absolutely gorgeous.
7 comments:
What size is that Kevin? I love it. I am constantly amazed by your brush control.. even with a little brush.I love the stone wall and bare trees. wow.
You're looking at a 9x12 I have about 1-1.5 hours in. It was getting colder and colder and colder...
Your snow looks great! To me you have captured that hard-to-figure-out snow "color." I can stare and stare at snow, and feel completely mystified about what temperature I'm seeing. What I've noticed so far is that snow shadow color seems to depend on how sunny the day is. On overcast days, to my eyes, shadows appear relatively neutral, and they look cool and more saturated on sunny days. I hope we get a few more snowfalls so I can continue to figure this out (and see how you're approaching it!)
I think the color has a natural look to it. Very well captured.
I think your doing a fantastic job conveying the snow. A difficult subject for certain.
I've always been impressed with Willard Metcalf's winters scenes.
Image google his work, "First Snow" or "Cornish Hills" his color use for snow in shadow and light always amazes me.
Wow! Just beautiful. Snow! Gotta love if not for these opportunities for a lovely painting!
Is this painting still available?
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