The wi-fi connection was down at the Bailey & Burke market yesterday, so I'm posting Day Two of our Vermont workshop a day late. This was a gorgeous fall day filled with peek-a-boo sun and shadows racing over the hills. We went up Darling Hill Road, which is in my opinion the best road in Vermont for seeing fall foliage, and parked near the Kingdom Trails trailhead. This trailhead is next to the Inn at Mountain View, which was once an old farm. It's got some wonderful barns that I've enjoyed painting, but I wanted to show the students how to paint the sunshine playing across Burke Mountain.
The trick with depicting sun and shadow on hills is in controlling the contrast of light and dark. We are so pulled in by the brilliant patches of sunlight that they seem brighter than they are. But if you paint them too bright, they will merge with the bright sky and no longer seem to be part of the hill. Also, watch the color temperature. Although there were some rich spots of foliage, they were cooler in temperature than sunlit trees closer by. As you can see in my demonstration, these were more of a red-violet than red or orange. To further enhance the light on the hills, I kept the foreground dark and mysterious. (9x12, pastel)
This morning, we're heading off to Montpelier, where I am giving a demonstration to the Vermont Pastel Society. After that, we'll head to Jackson, New Hampshire, for the night, and then to Campobello Island on Monday. Look for our third and final day of the Vermont workshop once we get home.
