Footprints in the Snow

Oil on Board, 9x12 inches

I did this painting as a demonstration for the Boston Art Group last week (no, not Boston, Mass. - we named our Boston first for all my millions of fans reading this across the pond).  As I always say, it's so difficult to achieve the same brightness of an early morning sky with the paint available to the artist.  As in 'After the Snowfall' in the previous post, there is no pure Titanium White in the snow at all, but I used some in the tiny highlights of twinkling light on the water where the reeds are disturbing the surface, that's all.  

To get this view, I stood on top of the hill looking down, so that all the footprints from the previous day's walkers were very evident, thrown into shadow with the strong sunlight.  It's a very different feel to this painting compared with 'After the Snowfall', with this one singing with light - lots of contrast with the sunlit snow and beautiful blues and mauves of the shadows.  I only used three colours - my 'primaries', Cad. Yellow Light, Permanent Rose and Cobalt Blue, with Titanium White of course.  I love the simplicity and discipline of mixing any colour required with those three colours, and it saves carrying extra weight when you're painting on site.

The demo was only just under two hours and this is how far I got in the time, before finishing it off back in the studio:

This is the last Oil for a while.  The next few paintings I shall post will be Pastels, the first being a portrait of a Longhorn Cow, so brace yourselves.  I haven't painted a Pastel for a while, so the change of medium will be challenging, before I get my eye in.