Lindy Whitton Studio

Postcard No 33: Life by the River

It was a cold night and looking up the river when I drew the curtains this morning I could see that Sleeeping Beauty was covered with snow. She’s a lovely shaped mountain and sits at the head of the river as you look up from our house. Looking down river from our morning walk the Hartz Range was also covered in a coat of white. As evening rolled around I realised I’d been so busy I’d forgotten my daily sketch so as Trevor started cooking dinner I went out on the deck and did a quick sketch looking upriver towards Sleeping Beauty.

I mixed up some ultramarine blue and painted in the mountain adding more blue and a touch of red as I moved down and the foothills became darker.

A little yellow ochre and a teeny amount of red made for the paddocks caught in the evening light and the ultramarine and yellow ochre for the riverbank trees.

I added a few splashes of the mountain colours as reflections and left quite a lot of the river reflecting the soft sky blue only.

Watercolour fitted the bill for this one as it had to be quick…my hands were freezing and dinner was almost ready!