Transition

The snow has pretty much disappeared around Glen Williams.  The Credit River looked like this recently.

February 27, 2010, Credit in the Glen

Now this was a snowy grey day.  Subtle, moody, and quite colourful if you were to look through your own eyes.  Nonetheless, Winter with its special painting conditions (simplification enforced) has been pushed aside.

Just as in painting the light side to the shadow side there is a transition season.  This is now upon us.

March 28, 8 am, 2009, Credit in the Glen - frost, no snow

Here the runoff is in full swing.  This photo is in early morning sunlight.  The trees, river, grass, weeds are all mud.  So, if you like to paint muddy, this is your chance.  But hurry, you have about three weeks for this transition. Then it hits you.  So get prepared for the monster (Dianne's favourite).

Early May 2009, Credit in the Glen, just green, thousands of 'em

Just when you were getting on to Winter painting, you go through greys right smack into green, slime green to start.  Green everywhere.  Many artists pack up their bags to wait for Fall.  You can prepare for this by mixing on your palette.  I use Viridian Green as my palette green if I use one green.  It can be bent to all sorts of warm and cool greens by adding Cadmium yellows (lemon, pale, middle, deep) or orange, red, violet and of course white.  The possibilities are endless - that is the problem.  But what you see is never what comes directly out of the tube.  You can get garish very easily with green.  The green season is quite long, moving from the delicate early spring greens to robust greens.  Then they begin to tire in early summer going deeper yellow and greying in a progression toward Fall.  So get ready, study, practice and get your eyes revved up.