Using Color

Winter On The Farm

7 x 11 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

I started this painting with the diagonal blue shadow line across the snow. Then I did the rest of the snow. I saw pinks, lavenders, and blues in the snow field, so I used a lot of broken color there. I have not really used that technique very often, but it worked to get the effect I wanted. The next think I did was the distant mountains. I have to admit, I really like to paint mountains. After the mountains, I decided to approach the barn and silos. I really haven't been using much red in my paintings until recently. I really like the effect of adding that bright warm color had on the painting as a whole. The red did not photograph as true as the other colors. Interesting. The sky was also fun to do. All in all, I enjoyed doing this painting.

The reference photo for this painting is part of the January Landscape Challenge on WetCanvas! You can find the challenge here. Thanks Jane.