About this oil:

I was immediately drawn to those trees nestled together in the snow. While driving on a high altitude, Colorado backroad toward the end of the day, I got this photograph of the view. The colors were very washed out in the photo and that was just fine with me. Now I was free to make something new and with colors far more vivid and different from the actual scene.

Painting in the high-contrast trees against the snow in purple blues, the oil gained power quickly. Now I had the option of keeping the monochromatic colors at the bottom to include the entire oil or to take the upper portion of the scene in a different, but equally interesting direction.

Skies create wonderful opportunities and I took the opening to bring in more color. I kept the last-light quality and soft focus, keeping the oil on the subdued side.

Once the work was completed, I was surprised to see that those powerful, dark trees in the front had been equaled by the colorful background ridge line and clouds – a nice balance and unexpected outcome!