The past two days have been declared Snow Days at Wild Ozark. It’s been brutally cold, but today the temperatures have warmed up to 46*F so far and it is bright and sunny outside.

I haven’t been outside much because none of my gloves keep my fingers from going numb, and the same for my boots and toes. But when I did, I took photos 🙂 Besides, the horses and chickens still expect to be fed, so I was out twice a day for that, at least.

Snow Days are Painting Days

Snow days are great days for painting. Yesterday I made some blue from the lapis lazuli powder I bought. Lapis is one of the two outsourced pigments I use in my art. (Titanium is the other). Everything else is locally sourced.

My current painting in progress is going painfully slow, but I added some of the blue to the gray clouds to give them a better color. I’ll need to add more after this layer dries. I’m working in thin layers on this painting. The final layer on the sky will be a glaze of bright red/orange using the paint I made from a chunk of red clay I found earlier during the season.

I am hoping that it will give the purplish hue to the clouds, since there will be blue beneath the red. I’m not sure it’ll work. This is an experiment in working with thin layers, and I’m learning things as I go.

You can see the progression of this painting at the page dedicated to it by clicking here. As I get more done on it, I’ll update that page even if I don’t make a separate blog post about the current status.

Stay Warm!

If you’ve got snow days to enjoy, I wish you warm fingers and toes.