I'm a bit behind with posting as I have three to put on, two snow paintings and this frosty one.
Took artist friend Sarah Manolescue for the first time to the Trundle. It was a gorgeous morning and she was wowed! I moved so I could get the sparkle on the sea in the distance and trees and shadows in the foreground.
It was difficult to see the sky as it was washed out with the bright low sun. I wiped it off and repainted it when I got back to the studio. The sky tone had to be darker than the sea but lighter than the distant land. Using yellow in the sky and violet in the hills, complementaries working together.
Making the middle distant hills a green-blue colour and light in tone made it look like frost. The cows were tricky I hadn't put them in and the farmer turned up in his truck beeping his horn they all came running, so cute to watch. Feed time. I was pleased they did disperse again so I could paint them in - small and dark.
I started this last weekend. But when I got back to the studio I found I couldn't finish because I didn't have enough information, it was the fist time I had visited and it was misty with the sunrise.
So I went back and did two drawings of the subject. I must haven chosen the coldest day of the year to do it! With wind chill -7 so bitter my teeth were chattering and I couldn't draw for shaking! But I was able to finsih it today, and I'm pleased with the outcome :-)
I met some friendly photographers when I was painting that day, one of whom, Sarah took some lovely photos while I was painting, here are a couple of them.
A beautiful morning, with a hard frost. I was out with the Surrey Hills Plein Air Painters. A lot of us gathered around to paint this subject. I enjoyed painting with others, and seeing their results of the same subject.
I was attracted to the winding path, frosty white and shadow shapes of the trees.
Again bitterly cold, it comes up through your feet and slowly freezes you!
I tried a square format as it's different to what I'd normally choose for this sort of scene.
Difficult perspective on the canal and boats. I spent some time blocking in and making sure I got it mapped out as acurately as I could.
The tones are tricky too especially on the frosty areas as its easy to go too dark.
The river was frozen solid and the reflections muted. I repainted them twice before happy!
