Tread Lightly

Once in awhile, you run into a day that pushes your palette into the 'high key' range. I had such a day last week. As I stood at the Mulholland Light, looking across the channel to Lubec, I decided the hazy day required a light touch. The clouds and sky, the distant landforms — everything wanted to merge into one mass.

My goal was to capture the lightness and warmth of this day, and the sparkle of sunlight on the water. I pushed all my colour mixtures to pale tints, reserving the only-slightly darker mixtures for the foreground.

The glint of sunlight on the water is pure Titanium White with just a breath of Cadmium Yellow Pale mixed in. (Somehow, this mixture always seems whiter than white!)

"Lubec, Hazy Day" 8x10, oil

(By the way, this week marks the beginning of the Plein Air Painters of the Bay of Fundy First Annual Paintout. I hope to start posting some of the week's paintings in a day or two.)