'Winter Scene'
Bobbie George
'Peeping Through' - Lynn Dargis
'Winter Rhodos'
Susan Smith- Knoblauch
'Snow Berries'
Cindy Shorris
'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.
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