"Winter Sun" acrylic painting demonstration by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Winter Sun", acrylic on canvas, 14 x 14"
$695.00 framed

I did this painting over the holidays, trying to bring some life into this winter cold we are having. I have been tremendously impressed and inspired by the watercolours and acrylics of Scottish artist Chris Forsey. They touch on a way of painting that I explored several years ago, and had forgotten all about. I thought I would show you the steps so that you can see how it was done.

Step 1: First of all, I need to tell you that I had no idea how this was going to turn out -I love the challenge of working from chaos!! The painting begins with a random mess of fluid acrylics, quin gold, quin burnt orange, and Perm Violet dark with a touch of dioxazine violet. The paint was put on wet-on-wet and dry brushed, with splattering, stamping with hand carved stamps and scraping. While this underpainting is warm in colour temperature, the final painting will have a cool dominance, bringing attention to these lovely warm colours.

Step 2: Some translucent and opaque blues were begun to get the feeling of snow and sky. I was careful to keep all the edges soft at this stage, as I wasn't sure where I was going.

Step 3: More stamping was done with transparent and opaque colours, and hints of trunks laid in. The edges of the stamped patterns began to suggest a tangle of branches.

Step 4: Tinted opaque white mixed with modeling paste was added to the bottom area with a palette knife in a loose fashion to begin to model the snow.

Step 5: Splatter was added to the bottom snow as were some suggestions of cast shadows. Trunks and branches were added in darks and lights weaving throughout the brush. A suggestion of the warm sun breaking into the coldness was added. Also at this stage the tree tops were further suggested by negatively painting them with the sky colour. Some faint distant trees were added and the sun was softened further to suggest a haziness that I felt expressed the frostiness of the morning.

Step 6: I needed to change the size of the trees on the left, so I sponged in some white paint and let that dry with the intention of glazing all of it with the warm 'brush' colours. In the end, I only glazed some of the white and kept the rest as I thought it looked like snow caught in the branches amongst some yellowed leaves which remained on the trees.

Enjoy!

PS: I will post another clearance sale painting tomorrow. Please note that Poppy Surprise and Iris Garden have been sold. Glad that this clearance sale is working!!!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.