The last day of winter
Posted: March 19, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized 16 Comments »I don’t often go back to old blog posts but it occurred to me tonight that sometime last March we were having a heat wave in Montreal. I wasn’t quite sure when it was so I went back in my posts to last year at this time. I was hanging laundry outside on the clothesline on March 20, 2012, but I guess I’ll be using the clothes dryer tomorrow.
Well… I admit I was wondering today if you would paint the snowy winter wonderland outside. And if so, how would you capture it? It seemed to be a complete blanket of white outside my door. Et voilá — the answer. I love the simplicity. It conveys the scene beautifully. And there is an abstract quality I really like. Delightful!
There were so many things I wanted to paint today but had no time at all. I had to teach in the afternoon, work in the morning and shovel the car out of the driveway in the middle of that. So this was done at dinner time just as it was starting to get dark. Hopefully I will find a few minutes tomorrow. The view out your window must have been amazing today. One day I will come over to sketch it.
Perfect colours as the day ends and especially in winter when it goes to many shades of blue! I call that “The Divine Hour”. I often stand at my picture window and watch the spectical of a winter sunset.
It sounds like a beautiful view from your window Angie. I love the colours at the end of the day — all so close together.
Absolutely love the abstraction in this Shari, it was the first thing that hit me!
Such soft fluid grey shapes, all executed without a pen, and capturing the spirit of this day.
I think tomorrow the white branches will be gone.
Thanks Mary. I am having a good time going directly to paint with no pencil lines.
This is a wow picture. Almost makes me long for last week’s snow (well-not really). The abstract quality of the picture is stunning, as is the slihouetting. I’ll study this one. What colours did you use?
Thanks Rene. I know you did have a lot of snow in Europe last week.
I used mostly cobalt blue (I always use a bit of that for snow) and burnt umber with a bit or raw sienna in the fence.
I love so much the abstract treatment. So strong.
Thanks Miguel!!
OK, I have to agree with all the comments above… this sketch has a really nice abstract quality which I noticed with my first glace… even before everyone started making comments. Excellent work!
But (yes, always a “but”)… this abstract approach is unusual for you… did you really intend to achieve this quality? There was nothing about a different approach in your accompanying text, so I started thinking that maybe those delightful white shapes (which create the abstract quality) were just the result of being fairly rushed to complete a post? …or perhaps because the brush you selected was a bit too big? I will be only too happy if you tell me that I am completely wrong. : )
I did intend to have this abstract quality even though my time was limited. I didn’t use any pencil lines and I was working on the negative shapes so the intention was to keep it fairly flat.
Same here of course..actually i think we get more!
You do snow so well! I find it so hard.
Thanks Monique! Painting snow is like painting eggs. The nuances are very subtle.
Amazing! So beautifully thought out.
Thanks Lee!