Winter Scene -

Country Lane in Winter- Bavaria, 32x20

The last post of the boats in the fog,  left me wanting to try another painting using values close together and do a better job of softening my edges. The reference photo for this painting came from our Christmas in Bavaria a number of years ago. It was bitter cold. This is a work in progress, but I wanted to post it so I can see where it needs to go from here. Painting snow is a challenge, especially when there isn't a whole lot else to break it up.

Joigny Dock in Fog

Boats in Fog - Joigny sur L'Yonne; 12"x24"

This painting was done yesterday; The "assignment" was to stay within the three lightest values (on a scale of one to ten) with pure white being the lightest. I did not use pure white and my darkest value is probably darker than it should be to be qualified as a "high-key" painting, but I am okay with that. I pretty much stayed with three values throughout and tried to keep them close. My "mother" color was a mixture of cerulean blue, burnt umber, white and a tad of yellow ocher. Depending on the value I wanted, depended on which color in the mix was dominant, but the foggy color was mixed into everything else. The only other color added was Cadmium Red Light for the painted accents, but a color harmony was already established.
I took this reference photo on an early foggy morning on the Yonne River in Burgundy. We were docked in the town of Joigny in early October. I had done a sketch of the boat on the right at the time and have always intended to do a painting. Now, I finally accomplished that.