Snow of Memory

Snowy Walk, egg tempera on panel, 30x20, 

I was asked how I worked recently. Did I draw, did I work plein air, did I use photos? I use all those strategies but I don't work in a straight line, visualising an outcome. I begin with something I want to try out and then things happen and I need to make choices and find ways to solve problems. 

I have tried to keep the snowy light in my head so that I could make a little series of pictures of walking in the morning light. I did some drawings and took some pictures and tried to look and look. I looked through paintings and kept two books open as I worked on this: Wolf Khan, pastels and particularly: Looking towards St Peters (1963) and Bonnard (Phillips Collection exhibition) Piazza del Popolo, Rome.

Wolf Khan, Looking towards St Peters

Pierre Bonnard, Piazza del Popolo, Rome

The place and the situation are a collage of memories, stitched together to make a believable moment. The figure with the hat was added later and I removed some things that were distracting. The moon was a happy accident.  a drop of water that removed the tempera.

When something works it's time to try it another way

Snowy Walk, egg tempera on panel, 30x20 cm, 

For the past few years I have stuck to particular media to use for different subjects.  I use pastels for still life, landscapes in Maine (mostly) and life drawings, egg tempera for portraits, monotypes for UK landscapes and life drawing. Oils are for everything. I've also made a few egg tempera paintings of still lifes and Maine landscapes since I began using the medium   Today I tried it for snow light. What I was trying to do was to create the surface interest that I love from egg tempera, to try to get the luminosity you find in snow and to find colour that would provide interest.  I used a few drawings I made when the snow was on the ground and photos from walks. The image was a collage of some of these images. 

When I went to the Bonnard I saw how he used drawings to do the same thing and how he used animals as devices for colour and shape within the painting. 

I think I'll do a series of these if I can find different things to say about it all.