I am ignoring the white stuff that has accumulated outside of the window and instead I’m thinking about summer, and sandhill cranes and blue water ponds and oranges and warm…… “Walking Away”, 22″ x 30″ transparent watercolor, by Raven (c) 2014, Fairbanks, Alaska USA
Morning sun
“The first thing that I do is check on Mt. Hayes. I enjoy seeing the light and shadow patterns on it first thing in the morning with my coffee. The evening light is totally different. The other side of the mountains become light and it is spectacular too. I also enjoy watching the shape of the river weaving it’s way through the valley”. She told me this while we both watched the sunlight bathe the mountains in a wondrous glow.
This was my challenge, to paint the scene out of her dining room window and capture the wonder that she experienced.
After a few hours, we gazed at the oil painting from across the room and decided to stop. It captured what we wanted to capture.
I love to paint landscapes. And I love to connect people with their favorite scene, the view out of their window.
A perfect morning: sun, birch, mountains, wood stove
Don’t you just love a perfect morning when everything comes together after a delicious cup of hot coffee?
A few weeks ago in February, I couldn’t wait to get my brushes into paint and get started on a canvas.
Mount pochade box onto tripod. Squeeze out color. Brushes available and warm fire in the wood stove. Perfect.
The sun rises and shines on the birch. Mountains appear across the river valley. I pile on the paint and push the color to capture the scene.
Fire crackles in the wood stove. It entertains and warms me.
I start with bright colors. I will tone them down with more layers of paint but the orange of the morning-sun-sky needs to shimmer through the trees. I like to have little edges of bright color intensify the whole visual experience.
Adding color to the canvas affects the other colors in dramatic ways. It’s a whole world that’s being created with its own relationships. Colors contrast and enhance each other. A brush stroke with light orange tint can make the light blue shimmer and appear more intense.
“Sunrise”
8″ x 10″ oil
Morning sun shines orange through the trees and lights the sky behind the silhouette of Mt. Hayes.
The day begins in the Tanana river valley. I love morning sunlight. It warms up the sky and contrasts with the cool blue shadows.
Winter light
Warmth and hope
January in Alaska. I stand on the warmer side of the glass. Cold dark trees give me an idea. Grab the pochade* box and mount it on a tripod in the dining room. Smell of oil rises from paint squeezed out.
Cup of tea.
Sketch ideas.
Wait.
Faint blue patch of sky at last above the horizon.
Go.
Large brush pushes paint around on canvas.
Outside, pinks and peach and lavender take over the blue sky patch.
Light. Warmth and hope rise again.
Tree shapes reach out to the light. I paint sky colors and then back to the stand of trees. Back and forth. Add the fallen tree with snow pile on it. Define shapes with more dark. Push paint until I don’t know what the next brushstroke should be.
Stuck.
Frustrated, I step back fifteen feet to look at it.
Pow.
Surprise. It works. The light jumps out. Trees stand strong. Loose, bold and free brushstrokes, patterns of light and dark, warm and cool tones tell the story.
I am not sure if the painting is about First Light or if it is more about the joy of painting. Putting one color next to another and delighting in the way the notes of color make a harmony.
The painting works for me, but does it work for you? Do you see something different in it?
I hope this makes you want to go to a window and feel the sun warm your cheeks. Treat yourself kindly, like you would treat a dear friend. Stop beating yourself up and be warmed by the light or by knowing the sun is shining on the other side of the cloud.
I hope these suggestions make a difference in your world today.
*Pochade—What is that?
A pochade box is a compact portable painting studio in a small box. It holds tubes of paint, brushes, palette and the lid will hold the canvas upright and secure so it can be painted. The bottom of the box often has an insert that will fasten onto a tripod turning it into an easel. Some pochade boxes also hold the finished wet canvas securely within to protect them and make carrying a wet painting out of the field easier. Painting in the field ‘en plein air’ means painting outside looking directly at the subject. Is it painting plein air when the artist stands on the warm side of the glass? There are different opinions on that question.
In the studio
A cup of tea and a window full of trees entertains me.
Sunshine splashes yellow-orange light on the aspen. Spruce stand back and don’t get involved.
Umber-cerulean and purple in the shadows. Many colors in the shadow.
Graceful branches reach to the sky.
Reddish wintery hue of trees in the distance. Hard to get that color right. It shimmers as a reddish-purple-orange tint, totally dependent on what’s around it.
Hill and Sky
Cerulean blue hill plays with the yellowish sky color at the horizon. Melodic and peaceful. The sky becomes deeper blue higher and higher. More red and less yellow in the blue.
Colors reveal themselves. The subtleties become obvious.
The landscape is alive.
Colors dance with possibilities.
I want to capture them in paint.
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