Bundled up

I'm bundled up for an afternoon of drawing outdoors. Cold is cold and even though this day was warmer than last week, my toes were aching from the cold after only 45 minutes. I think it's because I sit so quietly with only my right hand moving.

But working outdoors especially in the wintertime is invigorating. I am tired of being indoors and I've always loved snow. Plus the camera does a lousy job of capturing the nuances of color that you find in the winter landscape which makes working only from reference photos disappointing. That's why I'm looking forward to a sunny but cold day tomorrow for one more day of plein air pastelling before the snow melts away.

Look for my newest pieces at Kentucky Crafted the Market in Louisville, KY at the Kentucky State Fair and Expo center March 6 & 7.

Winter Challenges

Wintertime use to mean lots of quiet work time in my studio without the distraction of the lure of the outdoors, but now that I'm crazy over plein air pastelling the winter has presented a new challenge. 


We've had a nice amount of snow in Kentucky, 4-5 inches and new snow every few days to refresh the landscapes, but it's been cold! I consider daytime temperature of 20 degrees to be pretty cold especially to drag all my drawing equipment outdoors to work on new pieces.


But with the help of my husbands toe and hand warmers and lots of layers of clothing off I went to the park close to my house. I used my biking glove on my drawing hand because the fingers are cutout of the glove and I put a nice warm winter glove on the other hand but oddly the drawing hand remained warmer because I was moving it and the other hand was not so lucky since it was holding my drawing board still.
The top image is "Dogwood Creek Morning Light" and the bottom image is "Creek in Afternoon Light." Each sketch took about 30 minutes and I took reference photos to help me complete the pieces indoors.