Ups and Downs of Landscape Painting

Nova Scotia is enjoying a few days of very mild weather. Being that it is the middle of February this seems rare.

Given this opportunity and only a few short hours of sunlight, and the heat it brings, I grabbed my paint bag and headed for the woods. Looking for subject matter on the snow white land led me to think that working on conceptual ideas around white on white would be my only choice. As luck would have it after a short hike along a woods road the beautiful blue sky reflected back at me through a brook.

The burst of colour rising from the frozen ground drew me in and I set up my easel and began to work. Speed painting is the order of the day and even then after a very quick hour I could feel the heat disappearing from the air.

As the temperature cooled the paint began to thicken and turn into a thick buttery paste. Very Interesting in itself but that is a story for another day. I packed up and headed for home happy to have taken the chance on the day.