Painting WINTER in the heat of Summer

The final chapter in the series of annual "Season" art quilts touring exhibition is here to get to creating. Having now lived in the mountains of California for almost 5 years, I have become well versed in the challenges and length of living with winters with ice and snow, and seemingly never ending COLD! This exhibit launches tour annually at Road To California (Jan. 2012)
That said, in this years exhibition I chose to do something that represented that. I can't possibly imagine the challenges wildlife face living IN the weather with little to no shelter. I honor their strength and tenacity. I begin with a winter sparrow drawing placed beneath sheer white fabric (I like Hoffman's pattern 1377) because it is high thread count with skinny individual threads permitting me to easily see my drawing underneath.

I'm no different than most artists. Before I begin, I am a mixture of anxiety and anticipation. Paintings don't start themselves, so I begin with all those feelings carefully tip toeing into the most important parts... the birds head and eyes.

This is a near monochromatic palette... mostly grey, soft brown, near black... and value becomes critical. the upper part of the body almost feels like a paint by number effort to start. Once segments of darks were placed, a softer mid value dry wash was added atop.

The breast and lower body is soft short feathers and are represented with short and limited brush strokes. A wee bit of light value additional color (blue/yellow)is added for interest. Artists get to do that!!

So we have the birdie... but still have to represent the snow and nature which surrounds the sweet sparrow.