Original Watercolor Painting, “Plein Air, 2.22.22, Snow”, watercolor and white gouache, 18 x 24”, 2022

This piece is maybe the last time I really used any photo reference to augment a predominantly plein air piece.  I was so eager to paint the snowy view outside my window on a cold day in February of 2022. Getting snow in Seattle has always had a lot of novelty and joy for me, since childhood, because it is such a rarity.  I knew I’d have to work quickly, so I began with large washes of color to establish the snow-gray of the atmosphere and leave the white of the paper in the foreground of the lightest snow-covered roofs.  As the snow melted and the day grew brighter - I had had the foresight to take a picture of some of the outlines of the houses on the hill, and worked towards the end of the piece from those reference photos I had taken - mostly to get the shapes of the buildings accurate.  The piece to me doesn’t feel like a work from a photo because it was still 50% or 70% done en plein air, from life, and only touched up at the end from my photo reference.  Still, this was to be just about the last time I really used any photo reference for this kind of work.