white grove Painting

March is an unpredictable month, the first sunny, but still snowy in the region where I live. The color scheme is based on associations with a bright blue sky and dark earth tones, like wet soil under melting snow. In this drawing, I wanted to convey this ambiguous atmosphere of March weather, when the sun is warm, but the shade is still cool. I find the white trunks of birch trees a very graphic object for the image. I like the dark, bare, thin branches and the wide, white trunks that reflect the light. Next to my house, birch trees are planted along the street, and depending on the time of day, their light trunks so significantly change the image of the landscape as a whole, then reflect the pink reflections of the setting sun, then glow yellow at dawn... It's fascinating... For the base, I use archive-quality cotton paper and Winsor&Newton watercolors. In my work, I use calligraphy brushes made of natural pile, they give softness and expression to the strokes. At the beginning of the work, I apply paints on wet paper, to get the effect of airiness, fluidity, spontaneity. In the second stage, I refine the details and place accents on the dried paint layer. I like watercolors for their distinctive character. Watercolor can be airy and transparent, but at the same time effectively transmit color and light and a soft glow. Partly I allow watercolors to express their character, partly I direct it, using my own taste and artistic experience. I want to keep the feeling of lightness and airiness. I simplify or generalize some forms, leaving a recognizable silhouette of the object, but partially taking its image into abstraction, leaving room for the viewer's imagination.