Sunday, January 29, 2012

First Snow Of The Winter.

About a week and a half ago I was awakened by the scrunch of snowplows on our street.

A peek out my bedroom window confirmed the forecast for snow. I grabbed my camera and headed out for my morning walk.

My route takes me past the now defunct Barnes Foundation.

At the half- way point I go through Merion Botanical Park, beautiful in any season, and the site of many of my oils and water colors.

Very still on this chill gray morning.

 Just as I do when painting, the photographer in me looks for the natural rhythms that exist in nature.

 And color, subtle at this time of year.

It's also about the interaction of shapes, and in particular on a day with such extremes of contrast; the relationship and distribution of light, dark, and middle values.

Here's a vertical version of the scene above, drawn in my sketchbook about a month ago. 
Spring is just around the corner.

3 comments:

  1. Ah, what a beautiful walk! Years ago my friends and I went to see the touring Barnes exhibit in Toronto but it was sold out for the day. We hadn't realized we needed to purchase special tickets ; (
    Your sketch is lovely. I always strugle with how to handle leaf matter on the gorund in forests. I think great artists are master editors and I love how you edited your view!

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  2. Thanks for bopping in here Kim.
    This past weekend I participated in a "Paint-Out" in Chadds Ford; Andrew Wyeth country.
    In each of the 2 paintings I did, I had to deal with how to indicate piles of leafy matter. I concluded it's better to leaf well enough alone. hee-hee.

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  3. Beautiful value studies!
    are you going to paint from them?

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