Thursday, 31 January 2013

Winters Scene

There were 19 of us at Avon Valley Artists this morning, and it was great to see so many interpretations of the subject. There were some lovely traditional landscapes with a variety of different colour renderings of sky and land. After the recent weather, there was plenty of snow!
I used one of the photos taken in the garden of sturdy twigs bowed down with the weight of the snow as my starting point.




The idea was to paint the snow with bits of berries or rose hips peeping from under it, with perhaps a couple of snow laden leaves as well.

How difficult was that! I had to paint the twigs, hips and leaves first and then add the snow.

I painted in the twigs by puddling a pool of paint in the top RH corner of the paper and then dispersing it by blowing at it through a straw. I always think this process gives very realistic twigs.

I then painted in the hips, doing the minimum of drawing, not worrying too much if the colour did not hide some of the stalks as I knew these could be covered with snow later.
Finally using the AV Acrylic white gouache I painted in the snow, first making it blend with the underpainting to give the shadowy colours and then adding crisp white when it was totally dry.

I used a toothbrush and the spatula to splatter both a fine spray and some more dense blobs, and I added a few red splatters in the lower half of the painting.

Although, as usual, I totally enjoyed the experiment, I did find it quite hard to interpret the bulk of freshly fallen snow so close up!


'Snow Covered Rose Hips'
30 x 22 cm

Fabriano Artistico 300g 'Not' paper

8 comments:

  1. Love this Yvonne, the composition, texture, and thanks for sharing the process, not that snow is ever on my mind where I live

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    1. Thanks Lorraine, very happy to share. I do not know where you are, but here we have had plenty!!

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  2. Gracias, Ina. Me alegro de que te guste. Contamos con mermalada, pero no creo sopa!

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  3. Once again a great insight into your process for which I thank you. After reading your lead in I wondered how you would pull it off, my gouache experimentations are not yet as controlled as yours. Having said that you have produced a wonderful rendering of the snow in this picture. You have complete control over that gouache. One little observation, the central rose hip is more strident than the others and might benefit from a little variation in tone and colour. Another minor comment reflecting my desperation to say something that shows I've spent some time looking at your lovely work.

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    1. Thanks Mick. Any comments are always welcome. They make me re-assess the work which is good. i am glad you enjoy looking.

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  4. Lovely - high quality as usual.

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    1. Thanks Peter. It looks better in the frame than I had hoped.

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  5. Hi Yvonne,

    Great piece!
    I'm learning a lot from you.AV Acrylic white gouache?
    I would like to try to use it someday.
    Thank you for sharing.

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