Over this holiday period I have been reading Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek and the Reinvention of Seeing, by author Laura J. Snyder. At one point she references Vermeer painting color into his shadows in one or more of his lovely interior scenes in contrast with some prior painters primarily using black or dark gray.
This thought has lingered in my conscious over the last twenty four hours or so. In the past I have been encouraged by various art instructors in go back into my shadows and describe with color and texture the feel of the landscape and its contours.
This above landscape, has a different feel, to me simply because of the use of winsor violet. Winsor violet is a color I use sparingly, except yesterday, as it is featured in this picture. It makes a nice dark when combined with burnt umber. Mixed with raw sienna, winsor violet makes a lovely tree trunk color as can be seen in the above watercolor. Also, I used it in a color mixture for painting the distant hills.
I like the cool color temperature of the colors here and in the shadows, as it is reminiscent of some of the hollows I walk through in our local woods. In particular, the stretches of winter when the ground is absent of snow cover.
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