"Snow Way?!..."

Tackled the snow...one would think that it would be easy for me to paint snow, having lived on the cold Canadian Prairies my whole life. This is not necessarily so with snow. Snow is not really white. It is comprised of many colour, least of all white! The colour of snow is largely dependant on the time of day, and how sunny it is.

Judging by the strong shadows in the reference photo, I can conclude that the photo must have been taken in the late afternoon or early morning. I recall seeing the most incredibly cool shadows and warm highlights on snow during these times. Taking the little old reference photo, a mere 3 X 3" in size and starting to lose its colour because of its age, I took the liberty of drawing from my memory the beautiful colours of snow.

I added tinted oranges and yellows to the highlights in the snow. Transitional areas from light to shadow, have warm to cool pinks. Wet on wet seemed to work best over the underpainting of blue-violet, then softly blending with a sable brush, juxtiposing it with the more obvious brushwork in the pathway. I want this layer to dry before going into the snow once more to build up the highlights, and push back the shadows more with some glazes of cool blue.

Maybe I'll finally be able to put this painting to rest and finish it before the snow actually flies! I better hurry. It's minus 5 outside.