Cold Hands, Warm Beech

This particular day was very cold, the kind of day that my friend, Mo's watercolor paints were freezing pretty much on contact. I handed her a hand warmer to keep it from freezing. We were set up near a manmade water fall along the river. I could feel the cold mist on my face. I had blue non-latex gloves underneath my fingerless gloves on to keep my hands warm. I began with an underpainting with 91% alcohol and hard pastel to keep it from freezing. I used a vibrant pink pastel underneath to help aid in the warm glow I wanted to achieve. I love plein air painting, especially in the winter. The small flecks of warm Beech tree leaves caught my attention right away and I knew I wanted to utilize this warmth in my snowy woodland scene to give it warmth. My intent of this plein air was to create an impressionistic feeling using broken color in the snow and to have the broken edge of light lead you through the woods. I left the quick energetic mark making of the Beach leaves until the end and made sure my mark making was economical. This pastel felt like it painted itself. Even though the day was cold, it made me think quick, simplify and be intuitive with the color and mark making.