My Featured Painting - "Snow Flurries above the Big Lost" - Lori McNee

snow flurries above the big lost

Snow Flurries above the Big Lost
© 2010 Lori McNee
30×24
oil/board
$3400

Early springtime in the Idaho mountains is a favorite subject of mine to paint. I am drawn to the contrasts of the melting snow, dark cattle and trees as well as the complimentary colors of the yellow grasses and purple willows that are so common to this country.

For this painting, I decided to explore working with complementary colors. This concept is what inspired me to paint the above scene.

I strayed away from my usual extended palette and chose to use a limited palette:

yellow ochre
cadmium yellow light
cadmium yellow medium
ultramarine blue
veridian green
raw umber
alizarine crimson
dioxazine purple

You can see I chose pigments that represented yellow and purple – natural complimentary colors. But, from all these colors I am able to mix a harmonious range of greens, browns, oranges and so on.

This experiment made me stretch my painting comfort zone. I am happy with the results.

Thanks for visiting – Lori