How to capture an ice blast in a painting? You stand there and grit your teeth and paint fast, that's how. Maybe I should make a new series of how to freeze your butt off while painting outdoors in the Canadian winter! Somehow it worked though, you can feel cold just by looking at this painting. The wind was blowing from the west down the train tracks and around the big apartment building unseen on my right. I knew the key was getting the value contrast between the trees and snow, and adding a splash of colour with just the green pine in the background, the raw sienna (caramel) benches and garbage bin, and the blue shadows. I was out of phthalo blue (PB15) but the indo blue (PB60) worked fine. Just getting the signature to be legible was a challenge. The atmospheric subtlety was captured by creating a yellowish glow on the top left of the sky, and a cooler greyish transition to the right side. A thin yellow ochre (PY43) wash did the trick, with a touch of synthetic yellow (PY97). Some snow crystals hit the painting creating a snow effect when it dried.
Iced Coffee Park, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2024 (No. 3679a)
You're right, l could feel the cold, but I am not complaining this year. Winter took long to arrive. 😕
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