World Inspired Landscapes: Finland

 

Looking at parts of Finland's landscape and you would swear it was Canada. They have glacial lakes with granite features and rolling forested hills. In the far north it is a tundra-like barren landscape populated with sparse trees and abundant wildlife. Finland also has some incredible views of the aurora borealis, otherwise known as the northern lights. In the painting, I show a winter forest scene with tall, snow covered pine trees against the eerie backdrop of the northern lights. The trees look as if connected to the lights display, or almost like they are producing it. 

This was my first attempt at depicting the northern lights and it worked out better than I had expected. The key elements were the high-chroma high value turquoise against an inky black nights sky. The trees just had to show an blue-green glow as if illuminated strongly by the night's sky. To paint the effect I applied a juicy wash of the turquoise which was a mix of the three phthalo paints I wrote about in the last blog (PB15:3, PB16 and PG36). I applied the mix darker than needed because phthalo paints loose about half their intensity and lighten in value after drying. At the right moisture level, I dropped in the carbon black (PBk6) sky with some perylene maroon (PR179) and indo blue (PB60) mixed in to give the inky look. The technique had to be done in one decisive move to avoid back-runs or blossoming. The swirls and twirls were done quickly and then allowed to dry.

World Inspired Landscapes: Finland, watercolour 6 x 8" cold press, April  2022 (No. 3000b)