Colors in the Snow

Untitled, oil on panel, 3x5

One of the things about snow is that it actually isn't white. That is, the snow crystals are white, certainly, but the snow surface generally reflects the colors around it, whether in sun or in shadow. Our eyes and minds tell us that the snow is white, but painters need to know better.

These small oil sketches were all done in winter but at different times and in different weather conditions. In each the snowy ground has a much different color and appearance. In the first, the view is generally northwest as sunset is casting a red to pink glow over a blanketing snowfall. The tiny size of the support allowed me to do a very rapid impression of the spruces and trees from my studio window. 

In the second sketch there is much less snow, barely enough to begin covering ochre-colored grasses that covered the slope beyond Druid Hill Creek. The fallen tree has been a motif for several years, since it suddenly fell one night..

The final sketch in the series shows cris-crossing dark blue shadows against yellow to pale ochre snow. The whole thrust of that particular sketch was the colors on the snow, which still reads as white to the viewing eye.

Untitled, oil on panel, 8x10

Untitled, oil on panel, 6x8