Snow days

'Winter Scene'

Bobbie George

'Peeping Through' - Lynn Dargis

'Winter Rhodos'

Susan Smith- Knoblauch

'Snow Berries'

Cindy Shorris

'Plum tree in Winter Wonderland'

Melanie Stanley

'December Snow'

Linda Jones

'Winter White' Marie Wright

'Winter Calm'

Linda Jones

As artists living in Northern Virginia, it is not surprising that our watercolor classes in recent weeks have included an afternoon or two painting snow scenes. For all artists, not only those just starting out in watercolor, painting snow is a challenge. It is definitely not all white and not the white of watercolor paper. It reflects different light and colors depending on the time of day; the hues cast in the shadows by the trees and buildings in the scene; the color of the sky, whether gray and snow laden or clear blue after the storm has passed; the terrain and rolling curves of the drifts.

It is best to paint snow when the experience of fresh snow lies outside the studio window, heavy on the trees, still pristine in the calm after the storm. The same freshness and perception of color is not so easy to achieve when painting from photographs or when the snow has long gone and the memory of the warm blue shadows has faded.

This is definitely a time to look at the landscape with an artist's eye, observing the sharp and soft edges of the shadows, the subtle warm and cool colors in the snow, and the way it clings to and wraps around tree branches. Observing these features leads the artist to use interesting washes, both wet on wet and layered glazes on top of dried paint. Snow compositions necessitate having a clean brush and water handy to lift colors and soften their edges. We haven't yet used the masking technique in class, so we painted around our white snow emphasising the softness. I don't believe it is cheating to use gouache to portray the pristine white snow heaped on branches or to pinpoint the whiteness and glinting highlights at the end.

Dispelling the Myth

One of my main objectives in teaching watercolor is to dispel the belief that watercolor is an unforgiving medium. There is of course an element of truth in this thought when you compare it to acrylics in which mistakes can easily be painted out. I am constantly responding to requests for help from my students who think they have ruined their work or made a mistake in their painting that can't be overcome.

It gives me great pleasure to demonstrate how they might lift off their last brushstrokes removing an unwanted color with a different brush and clean water, add a subtle wash in a suggested color to tone down the negative space that might have become too dominant, or alter a composition slightly to cope with a mishap. All three instances occurred in my recent class "Abstracting from Nature - Bird Paintings". Images from this class will appear in a later blog.

When I was teaching high school my students teased me occasionally when I frequently repeated certain phrases in class. Saying their goodbyes, one senior class created and painted a huge card incorporating many of these catch phrases. Now in my adult watercolor classes new catch phrases are emerging, and when I hear my students repeat them, I realise I am hopefully achieving my goal. At the first introductory class I remind all students not to get stressed over a painting with which they might be struggling, saying, "Remember, it's just a piece of paper". Now I hear this coming back to me, "I think this painting has become 'just a piece of paper'." Most often the piece of paper can be rescued.

This week I found myself saying, "Don't worry, a mistake is just an opportunity to learn something new". It was immediately picked up by the group and I have a feeling I will hear it repeated in future classes.