Lock and Snow, Great Falls, 20″ x 24″, Pastel Premiere Italian Clay

Reference photo

Partial completion 1

Partial completion 2

Hello Friends. I’ve been painting more snow, even though there’s just rain here.  I went back to a 2015 image from the canal that I painted as a 16 x 20 and sold in that year. Decided to do it again for my Dec. 2020 show of winter pastels.  I printed out the image in both black and white and color and realized how beautiful it is!  I don’t think I’ve ever taken such an almost perfect picture!  The only thing I don’t like in the photo is the reflection of tree right down the middle.

The only 20 x 24 choices I had were the 600 grit Pastel Premiere and a large sheet of the Italian Clay and I decided the latter would better.  So no underpainting, which always leaves me a little at a loss.  I drew the image with an HB pencil and the started from the top and worked down. I’m just not one of those people who can lay in large swaths of color when there won’t be any alcohol going on top of it!

The primary challenge to begin with was determining the value of the snow bank on the left.  I started with a fairly light violet, then decided to try a darker blue.  Put a little on and realized it was way too dark so brushed it off.  I ended up using violet, blue and a blue green in the same value of Girault. Later added some softer pastel on top.  For the light areas of the snow on the left I used a combination of very light greens, pink, orange and yellow–mainly the Ludwig lightest in each color.

For the lock, I listened to my husband complain about the large “dark hole” in the middle and I tried hard to add subtly lighter areas, pieces of ice and snow, and then the yellow and orange grass heads in front of it.

The grasses took some work as di the right side, which is not well defined and kind of messy in the photo!  But all came out OK.

My biggest challenge turned out to be the reflections in the water something I’m usually good at!  I tried putting in the reflection and then the colors of the water but lost the reflection so had to add them in over the water.  I felt suddenly like I’d never done this before.  Am I starting to lose it???  (Hopefully not! )  Perhaps an underpainting would have helped.

The last challenge was being able to differentiate the snow bank from the water on the left. I darkened it with a softer violet pastel and I think it works pretty well now. But it’s not as dramatic as the partial images before the water was added.  I love the sweep of the land here and didnt want to lose it.

That’s it!  Off to my piano lesson.