TRANQUILITY

Another winter scene… I recon I took this photo about 20 years ago - I can’t even tell you where, but it has stayed with me. I’ve never painted it before but suddenly needed to be revisited 🤷‍♀️. It’s one that looks better the further away you get from it!

There are some perfect moments in ski resorts where the planets align… you have fresh untracked snow, trees, sunshine and a beautiful area of tranquility…there is something quite magical about them, the subtle colours, the sparkle in the snow and the way it hangs on the branches of the trees.

These little areas remain untracked because they are generally difficult to get into or - more to the point - out of!

Original image for painting. Tonally just ‘darks’, ‘midtones’ and ‘lights’- but 1000 ways to go about painting it! Only the shadows tell you the lie of the land! My chosen crop for painting (right)…

I liked the ‘s-curve’ of the stream- always a strong compositional element to guide the viewers eye through the painting.

Starting with a midtone as a base. Using payne’s grey (a cool bluey grey). Left to dry. Then a really limited, muted palette of colours.

Some more photos that i’d like to paint from soon, taken recently in and around St Anton, Austria, Arlberg Ski area (below)

Mountain restaurant.

Crop 1 - view from the ‘Auenfeldjet’ cable car

or Crop 2?- the snow forms like sand dunes in the desert.

Simplicity at its finest.