While cross-country skiing today it occurred to me how the landscape is the opposite that of the Summer months. That may seem obvious to some people as the land is covered in snow.
However, as a watercolor painter one is told or learns that the landscape is two values or so darker than the sky. This gives your landscape a sense of grounding or a foundation to rest on.
The Winter though is another case altogether assuming you have snow covering the ground. In fact, from my observation being outside today, the sky and distant hills are a couple values darker than the snow covered fields.
To this point you don't even have to paint in the horizontal aspect of the landscape primarily just the trees. Naturally, the white of the paper is portrayed as snow. Now you can put in a wash in the foreground just to break up all the white with cobalt blue or raw sienna. Or even to suggest some shadows.
I travel around town thinking how I would paint certain objects or scenes and with which pigments. This revelation has been brewing for days as we have had many snow accumulations in the last month or so.
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