Let's welcome winter with more studio time. This is a great time to work indoors; find some forgotten work-in-progress (we all have those), try something new, or even clean up the studio. So if you are not into extreme plein-air painting, then its ok to hibernate for a while and let it snow! Winter for me is a time for reinvention. The post-holiday calmness brings opportunity to evolve as an artist, and I must say I do most of my evolving during winter.
I kicked it off this season with a winter landscape.
First off, I drew with fluid acrylic paint, blocking in the horizon with the focal point being just right of centre, where the creek meets the horizon. Then I washed the background with a very pale Alizarine Crimson and Hansa yellow, later covering most of it with an atmospheric haze of light blue/grey. Then I lightly suggested trees in the distance, lots of them, bringing the trees closer to the forefront with stronger contrast. The creek and rocks were mainly done with a pallet knife as was the settling snow. I brought more texture in the forefront with titanium white and light molding paste, yet I kept the background thin and grey. For the interesting texture of the bark and snow, I have GOLDEN Artist Colours to thank. I used the GOLDEN acrylic line of colours, mediums and grounds and found their molding and shaping mediums ideal for this. I loved getting the bulkiness of the snow using light molding paste and pouring mediums and conversly using the thin fluid acrylics for water and backgrounds.
I will be adding some of these techniques to my mixed media and landscape classes, and most definitely to my workshop in Italy this summer. Visit my workshop page and I hope you join me as we evolve in the studio this winter!
Discovery Trail in Winter - 30"x48" acrylic on canvas by Sandra Iafrate