After months of anticipation, and after a March heat wave, we got the biggest snow fall of the year. No, not Toronto, but the Hockley valley got it wet and thick. So we tried it for the last effort of the year.
Snow on My Side
By the time we started to paint we were left with large isolated snow patches. What to do? I have found over the years that my success percentage is much higher if I have a good idea of what I am going to do before I begin to paint. This is called having a concept. It means that you have developed at least a mental image of what your painting will look like before you begin. Athletes call it visualization. They visualize steps in the process that lead to an outcome. For me the highest level of this visual exercise is my thumbnail sketch. I design the image, leave things out, rearrange, add, check shapes for interest and value, and I even "paint" the little pencil sketch by laying in the shapes with my pencil as if the pencil were a brush. Works great. You know where you are going before you start.
Today we had to decide what to do with the snow. Here is one interpretation.
April Snow, Hockley, 11x14 oil on Board
Dealing with disjointed patches of snow requires the vision and strong editing. Its about the snow. Here is another interpretation.
Bootlegger, 11x14 Oil on Linen on Board
Yup, no snow. Here it is about the stream and the logs.
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