Snowy Morning

From my studio window.

 

A lovely view greeted me this morning when I looked out from my studio window. Such beauty is so fleeting in our area, I had to take some photos right away. A few hours later, the temperature had risen enough to denude the branches of their snowy decoration, but it was wonderful while it lasted!

 

My climbing rose.

From the front door.

Here is a short video of the birds in my front yard.

Transformation

Transformation, color pencil, 9"h x 9"w.

With the winter solstice rapidly approaching, I wonder if we'll get a lot of snow this coming winter. Last winter (early this year) we had only a couple of snowfalls. In January we got about 6 inches of very wet snow one Sunday. I stopped to take some photos of it while driving--amazing how just a little bit of snow can turn a familiar landscape into a magical world!

Recently I finished this small colored pencil drawing done from one of those photos. An ordinary roadside clump of trees covered with tangled vines transformed into a lovely sight! I used some silver and gold colored pencils to enhance the monochromatic hues, but my drawing was still lacking something, so I dug up some old Daniel Smith Interference paints, and put a bit of Interference Silver over the snowy branches. These paints have ground pigments in them that refract the light to give them a metallic iridescence when viewed at different angles.

Unfortunately, you can't see the luminescence in this photo of the drawing, since the effect only shows up when viewed at less than 90 degree angles. Still, the iridescence and the composition make this drawing special.