Inside Winter Painting Time

When it Snows... paint in the studio

It is cold and snowy outside and I am inside painting. The sun is not shining and I am dressed in layers to stay warm. I run outside only to take the dogs out, dressed in layers and layers for warmth! Brr! My February goal is to paint more landscapes. Up North where I live this means painting from my reference photos. Painting from photos is way less fun than painting 'en plein air.'

I have hundreds of reference photos and yet I still have a hard time choosing which one to paint. I can get stuck in an endless loop, scrolling through photos looking for inspiration. Some photos I have painted before, some are intimidating or do not have good light. Am I too picky?

Perhaps I should rely less on the photo and more on making up my own colors and designs. I went to a workshop once and the instructor used a poor photo as her reference pic. She made a beautiful painting but I could not understand how she chose the pretty colors for her painting as they were not in the photograph. Her reference photo was one that I would have deleted, it was lots of greens and not much design, how did she make it work? I have a lot to learn, and much to figure out. How can I  take a sad reference photo and make it a great painting? I have a long way to go in this regard.

I have learned that painting the same subject over and over yields better results! Right now I am working on a painting that I have painted twice on location –two different days two different paintings. Those paintings are my references now, and I am thinking of them as I start anew. This is my third iteration of this painting, and this one, this  one has potential…. 

I am very pleased with the final results (pictured), I hope to enter this into a show, wish me luck!