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I am honored, humbled, and thrilled that Carl's Pond, Frozen was chosen as one of the three staff picks from today's FASO Daily Art Show! Thank you, FASO, and Carrie Turner!

http://faso.com/fineartviews/70150/staff-picks-from-the-faso-daily-art-show-rob-compton-robert-thoren-carol-berning

We rarely get single digit temperatures such as we've had during the last few days. So when I discovered that Carl's pond was frozen solid and that little drifts of snow still clung to the pond banks, I was determined to brave the cold and try to capture that icy image on canvas.

After donning three pairs of pants and shirts, two pairs of socks in Carl's boots, gloves, a hooded jacket, and a ski mask, I loaded my painting gear in my SMART and headed across the pasture to the pond.  Luckily, the wind wasn't blowing, for there's no tree line on the north end of the pond to serve as a windbreak. And the sun was shining, creating toasty pockets of warm air 'tween my layers of clothes.

Several weeks ago, I had poured some transparent pigments on a canvas, experimenting with color, so I used that canvas as my painting support. That's why you see an abstract wash of pinks and purples.



I've completed several paintings of this pond, usually from a similar vantage point.  I chose to stand at the north end of the pond because the sun created some interesting splashes of light against the blues and greens of the shadows. In order to have some reference photos for possible future studio paintings, I snapped a few photographs. As it turned out, though, my completed painting didn't really reflect the vantage point of the photos I snapped.






When I set up my easel, I moved more to the right, which gave me a more rectangular view of the pond, as opposed to the curvy, S-shape in my photographs.  Actually, I wish my completed painting had more of that S-shape; it makes for a more interesting composition.

I began by sketching in my horizon line and the bank lines with thinned burnt sienna. Then I worked in the distant tree line. I tried creating three values in the tree line. For the darkest value at the base of the trees, I used a mixture of indigo and permanent rose. For my mid-range value, I used a mixture of indigo and cad yellow light. For the lighter value, I used indigo and french ultramarine blue with more yellow. I love the use of soft purples to create that hazy, atmospheric perspective in the distance, so I also used that in the treeline as it "met" the sky. Remember that wash of pigment I began with? Some of those pinks were peeking through the trees and sky.

Then with a dark purple, I laid in some shadows along the bank's edge.



Next, I laid in some blues along the left bank to capture the snow as it lay in shadow.



At this point, I got so engrossed in the painting, that I forgot to take more progress shots. After laying in those blues, I began brushing in the ice of the pond that you'll see toward the right of the composition.  I used pinks, blues, ochers, yellows, and siennas to create the color of the water/ice. Since the water in the pond is not very deep, reeds and weeds pop up in various places, adding some textural interest as well as creating shadows on the pond surface.  

Then I moved back (on my canvas) to the snowy bank of the pond, lightening the blues and trying to capture the whitest spots of snow as well as the rocky outcroppings peeking out from beneath the snow.  I moved around the canvas, working on both visible banks.

I had been saving the grasses and weeds for last, for they would add the most texture to the painting. With a palette knife, I began adding the weeds and grasses to the left bank.  And that's when I lost control of the painting! There was too much texture, and the gorgeous splashes of snow were lost in the weeds.  It's only paint and canvas, right? So I scraped the left bank, which meant that I had to lay in blues, rock outcroppings, and snow patches again.  When it came time to add the grasses and weeds, I used a lighter, rarer touch with that palette knife.

Except for the lack of the S-composition, I'm happy with the painting. I love color, so I love the pinks, lavenders, and yellows which appear throughout the composition. Also, I'm happy with the values in the overall painting. When I converted the image to gray-scale, I can see the darkest values, mid-values, and lightest values.  And I hope I captured the snowy, icy cold of the scene.

Here's the completed painting and an image of it in gray-scale.

9 x 12 on Pintura panel





Since I was already dressed in three layers of shirts and pants, two layers of socks, a hooded jacket, ski mask and gloves, I hated to waste a beautiful, 19-degree day to paint. So out in the pasture, behind Carl's garage, I found an interesting heap of rust with a little snow clinging to the roof, hood, and side window ledge. Carl tells me it's a '53 Plymouth. I think it's a great model for a painting.

5 x 7 on Pintura panel








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