LOADS OF VIEWS, REVIEWS & EVENTS |
If you grew up in a snowy place, as I did, you can appreciate the little-kid excitement that comes with the year's first snowfall — face pressed against the window, already planning a day of snowballs, sledding and snow forts. Maybe I’ve outgrown all that, but it’s still a happy time for me when the first snow blankets my part of Montreal. First of all because it’s a refreshing change from a mostly grey November. And second, because I love to paint snow scenes.
In this issue of The Wheelbarrow, I’ll celebrate the season by sharing some of my favourite colour mixes for snow, and how I use quick value sketches to plan my snow scenes. I’m endlessly fascinated with how other painters tackle winter scenes. So I’ll recommend a book by the late Claude Croney, a watercolourist from the American North East whose winter scenes are masterful. And while we’re at it, I might also suggest looking at winter landscapes (and just about everything else) by other artists I admire, such as Andy Evansen, Poppy Balser, Christopher Gorey and William Rogers.
As we near the end of 2024, I want to thank everyone who took a moment to connect with me this year. Maybe with a kind comment on my blog or Instagram, an email in my inbox, or attendance at a workshop or online class. Your interest and support means a lot to me. I hope your holiday season is filled with joy, and I look forward to sketching with you — in person or online — in 2025!
Blues for snow
Over the years, I’ve tried many colour combinations for shadows on snow. I used to lean pretty heavily on Cobalt Blue, but lately I’ve discovered that if I combine several pigments, I get far more interesting mixes for my snow shadows. (Warning: the following paragraphs contains really geeky colour info.)
In a previous issue of The Wheelbarrow, I pulled a tube of Indanthrone Blue from my paint drawer to illustrate how I used it throughout my urban winter scenes — for buildings, trees and roads. With its staining, deep blue-violet colour, it serves as an ideal dark component of a triad. This time, however, I want to show you how I use it specifically for snow mixes. As I noted, Indanthrone is pretty dark. But diluted, it yields a beautiful medium blue, which is how I like to use it in my winter scenes. (See below.)
Swatches above: Top row, left to right:
Cerulean Blue “Red Shade” (Winsor & Newton)
I love this for winter scenes because it has red undertones (unlike standard Cerulean Blue, which has green undertones). This pigment is highly granulating, which can be beautiful, but sometimes also distracting, so use with caution. I like snow shadows that are a bit on the purple side, which is why I use this pigment in my mixes, but rarely on its own.
Indanthrone Blue (Daniel Smith)
This is a staining non-granulating pigment, painted here at a middle value.
Indanthrone and Cerulean Blue
I like how these mix together. The granulation from the Cerulean is much less apparent when combined with Indanthrone, and since these are both reddish blues, they produce a very pleasing colour for snow shadows.
Bottom row, left to right:
Indanthrone and Permanent Alizarin Crimson (Holbein)
These are both non-granulating staining pigments that I like to combine for a cool blueish violet colour.
Indanthrone, Cerulean Blue and Permanent Alizarin Crimson
This is one of my favourite mixes. It has just a touch of granulation and lots of juicy blue violet for those subtle winter shadows.
Cerulean, Cobalt, Ultramarine Blues and Alizarin Crimson
If I don’t have Indanthrone on hand, I make an all-purpose cool blue by tapping my brush lightly on every blue in my palette: Cerulean, Cobalt and Ultramarine, along with a dot of Alizarin, to achieve this violet hue.
Here's a winter scene I painted using my favourite snow shadow mixes. You can see the blue/violet tone and granulation I get from combining a bit of Indanthrone, a bit of Cerulean and the tiniest drop of Alizarin Crimson.
Tombow Grayscale Markers
How important are value studies to successful watercolour painting? Well, I can say with certainty that when I trash a painting, it’s most often because of bad planning. In other words, I failed to think through the placement of my lights and darks. I’ve been painting for many years, and I still make this basic mistake.
But when I do take a few minutes to “think it through,” I begin with a value sketch, usually with pencil on thin sketch paper. The drawback of using pencil, however, is that the mid-tones and darks sometimes end up blending together. This is why I prefer grayscale markers, especially brush markers or broad tip markers, which more clearly delineate mid-tones and darks.
When my usual grayscale markers dried out recently, it seemed like a good time to try out these dual-tipped Tombow markers, which I had been eyeing covetously in an art store. I bought three, but I probably could have managed with just the light (N75) and dark (N45) shades. I used them to create a value sketch for a scene at the sand quarry near my house. The finished painting is below.
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Croney on Watercolor
by Claude Croney
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I recently made this pledge: I, Shari Blaukopf, will not purchase any more used art books (or new ones, for that matter) until I have finished reading all the ones I purchased in 2024 and that are now stacked in my studio.
Croney on Watercolor, which I bought at a used bookstore in Nashville, was on that list. Published in 1981, it’s long out of print, but poke around online and you can still find copies. Of course, it has a winter scene on the cover, as Croney considered himself somewhat of a Yankee. What I love best about this book is that it covers the fundamentals I picked up from my own teachers, when I was still at an impressionable age. Basically, think about values, composition, drawing and colour. You’ll find lots of sound advice here, along with a master’s sure guidance.
But what impresses me most about Croney’s work is his skill with a brush. As I go through the book, I find myself trying to figure out how he achieves his effects (even though many of the reproductions are in black and white): the brush he uses, how wet his paper is, the direction of his strokes. He seems to paint with wild abandon, but I have no doubt that his richly textured surfaces are only possible from years of experience, from putting miles on his pencil and brush.
Watercolor Live Online
January 22-24, 2025
This is my first year with Watercolor Live, and I’m thrilled to be part of this major online event. Join me and 24+ other artists for 3 days of demos — including my own sunflowers and cattails. You'll see my prairie bouquet demo on Essential Techniques Day on January 21.
Use the coupon code SHARI to save 10% off your ticket at WatercolorLive.com.
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I am so very honoured that my watercolour “October Corn” was chosen by the jury to be one of 25 paintings included in the final gift to the CSPWC’s Royal Collection Trust Project. These 25 watercolours join 75 others already in the collection (donated in 1985 and 2000) that are part of The Royal Collection of King Charles III, and they will reside in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. (If you don’t know, King Charles is himself an avid watercolour painter.) Many thanks to Linda Kemp, of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, for her hard work organizing this project, as well as to the members of the jury.
Here’s the text that accompanied my entry: “Cornfields are everywhere around where I live in Quebec, and corn is so typically Canadian. While out exploring my new semi-rural neighbourhood one day, I discovered miles and miles of cornfields. The corn had been harvested but the dry, rustling stalks were still standing, and as the morning sun filtered through the foliage, it created a strikingly abstract pattern. I thought it would be a great challenge to design a painting that is simply a repeating pattern of contrasting colours, lights and darks. I wanted to convey the light coming through the stalks and hitting the tops of the floppy leaves, as well as give a sense of all the colours that you see when you get close to the stalks and the decaying foliage. Surprisingly, there’s so much variety in the colours — bright reds, yellows and greens but also a variety of earth tones. I’m really happy I stopped to get a close-up view of the beauty of what some may find a mundane subject.”
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Hudson Valley, New York
As it’s my first time teaching with Hudson River Valley Art Workshops, I’m excited to join you in discovering the historic architecture and landscapes of upstate New York. Weather permitting, we’ll combine studio and plein air work, focusing on telling a story through the choices we make in composing a scene — elements that together evoke time and place.
September 7–13, 2025
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Bar Harbor, Maine
I love Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park so much, this will be my third year teaching there. Bar Harbor is beautiful in all seasons, but most spectacular in its fall colours. In this workshop, we’ll hop around the island to find the most sketchable spots — scenic villages and secluded harbours, with their fishing boats at anchor and maritime gardens, as well as rugged coastal scenes animated with jagged rocks and crashing waves. Believe me, there’ll be no shortage of scenes to capture in our sketchbooks!
September 29–October 3, 2025
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Thanks for reading.
