Let it snow!

I’d say we have had quite enough now in Brooklyn, but for several weeks we were blanketed by the white stuff and it was unavoidable that I capture the scene. It was really remarkable how much the snow could pile up in front of brownstones. Here is “Snowy Union Street”:

Snowy Union Street, oil on linen, 18"x24"

Playing with watercolors

One of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to play with other media and use materials I have stockpiled, but not used over the years. Watercolor painting is one of them!  Inspired by the abundance of snow we’ve already gotten in Brooklyn this winter, here are some of my latest playthings….

"My Turn to Sled", watercolor, 6"x9"

 

"Building Snowmen", watercolor, 6"x9"

"Uphill", watercolor, 6"x9"

I have a couple of more scenes in mind. In the mean time, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Now this holiday card made me proud

When the Prospect Park Alliance got wind of my offer to donate 10% of sales of park paintings, they asked if they could use one of my paintings, Sledding Home, for their 2010 holiday card.

Sledding Home, oil on canvas, 16"x20"

I was so pleased and honored! They printed 1000 of the cards and all of their departments used this card to send season’s greetings to all sorts of people. My studio mate told me she even saw one in the window of her neighborhood’s Councilwoman’s office (of course, she felt I was infringing on her geographical territory, but that’s another story).

Paintings from Colorado’s Rocky Mountains

Thanks to my handy-dandy pochade box, a new kind of plein-air painting panel from ArtBoards (a Brooklyn-based company – rah! rah!)  a couple of days off from skiing plus  gorgeous scenery, I came home with three 9″x12″ paintings of a couple of ski runs. We just don’t get blue skies like out West here in Brooklyn! (nor the snow, but they are forecasting up to a foot of snow here by later tomorrow!! Although I have to admit I’m starting to feel ready for spring.)

“Beaver Run, Breckenridge, CO”

“Cabin Fever,” Bachelor Gulch, CO

Bachelor Gulch, which is part of Beaver Creek, is at a lower elevation than Breckenridge, hence the large growths of aspen trees in between the pines. At first I thought they were dull-colored and was reluctant to paint this scene, but then realized they added interest to the composition and in fact there were reds and yellows to be played with to depict the leafless trees. Painting all the different shades of white – in the snow on the ground, the snow on the trees, clouds in the sky, snow on the distant slopes – seemed daunting at first, but I made myself focus in on each area I was painting and mix colors based on my observations and impressions (especially how colors look next to each other). It ended up being incredibly satisfying to capture the nuances of snow in the shade, snow reflecting the sky, clouds with different relationships to the sky.

There’s one more painting in my studio awaiting a few finishing touches. I’ll post that one as soon as it’s finished.

Playing with color, an indoor painting luxury

While I miss painting outside and the thrill of capturing light and color on-site, there are some niceties with painting in my studio. As I’ve been working on the painting of the Carroll Gardens street scene (see Works in Progress, and below), I’ve been able to play around with color combinations at my leisure – which is helpful because the church’s stone facade in the late afternoon light has an incredible variety of hues…

And, I’ve finally started a snowy scene of Prospect Park…  I’ll be posting updates in Works in Progress. It was a lot of fun to recreate the shimmery snow as the sun came out. It took some playing around with surprising color combinations to get the shadows and sunlit areas right. A little more refinement to be done here. I’ve gotten a couple of references to Monet by studio-mates and neighbors who’ve seen this painting so far! Sounds good to me!!

Thanks to the blogger at http://ayearinthepark.typepad.com, I remain inspired by Prospect Park and its excellent masquerade as a country escape (although the classic street lamp is a dead give-away).