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Dealing with a  snowy landscape can on the one hand be a welcome change, but on the other can present a whole host of new challenges. One quickly learns that there is very little pure white in any snow scene and making those shadows dark blue only tends to make the overall feel way too cold and artificial. This happens many times because we end up just painting "snow" rather than interpreting what is going on with the light and shadow in terms of temperature.  In the painting below titled "Cold Silence" I wanted to capture that point in the evening when the sun is setting and there is a blanket of snow and it is very  cold.  Even though this is a snow scene  the colors are quite warm. The plane of snow behind the outcropping of trees is lit up in pinks and  creamy yellows, with little tonal change happening. Most of the changes are in hue (color.) The colors on the shaded side of the  foreground outcropping are in light blues, greens and pinks. Again the overall tonal shift is small, the main difference is in hue. In dealing with the tree outcropping I pushed it more reddish brown to play against all the greens in the snow shadows. Very little white or blue in this painting.  We don't normally think of green in the winter. 

 

 

Taking this painting and turning it black and white you can quickly see how little tonal change there really is. Looks really flat actually. This where hue is our tool of choice and can make a tonally flat painting sing. 

 

 

In the closeup below you can see that other than the light blue shadow this is mostly warm hues and the warmest snow is a creamy yellow color. But look at the black and white, very little change in tone. This is the power of hues and their ability to denote light and shadow.

 

 

In very low light, snow can really offer some room to expand on the use of different hues to create light and shadow. In the painting below titled "Undisturbed" I played the warmer pinks in the creek against the greens(turquoise) in the banks. The Shadow side of the bank, left, had more light blue and purple snow, whereas the other side, catching more light moved from lavenders to greens to pinks on the outer edges.  I used greens and pinks in the distance snow covered fields. The pinks being the warmer parts of the field and the greens in the cooler sections. In the stream you can see the warmer reflection in the distance changing from a light yellow to a  warm pink as it comes closer (less light.)

 

 

Again, this painting looked at in black and white is not nearly as interesting as when we leverage the hues to our advantage. Look at the sky and how flat it is tonally, but when it's viewed in color, the hues sing. Same thing for the water. 

 

 

In the closeup below you can see how I used lavenders and turquoise greens for snow, eventually moving to more of a pink out in the field. Again also using the pink playing against the opposite green. 

 

 

Snow scenes can offer us a kaleidoscope of colors to draw from, just think in terms of temperature more so than tone. 

 

All the best,

Curt