Changing the Mood of a Painting

Promise of Spring

approx. 4" x 3" watercolor on paper

©2012 Stacy L. Rowan

Last week I did a sketch of snowdrops for my newsletter. I love snowdrops because they are the first flower of the new growing season to bloom.

As soon as I notice the winter sun feeling a little warmer, I go out into my yard and see if any snowdrops are peeking up out of the ground.

To me these flowers represent hope. Hope that winter is coming to an end and that the warmer, brighter days of spring are on their way.

Not being a big fan of the cold, gray weather, come the end of February I am normally desperate for some sign that winter is going to retreat and allow the sun to return.

This year we had an uncharacteristically sunny and dry winter. When the snowdrops bloomed we already were enjoying the clear blue skies that I am normally pining for.

As I painted my sketch for the newsletter I was thinking of the type of weather we had this year when I found the first flowers, and I painted the snowdrops on a backdrop of cheerful blue. You can see that sketch (and this months newsletter) here.

As I thought about my painting and how it was representative of this year's winter experience, I had the urge to create something that would be a better representation of the typical winter.

On a typical March day the snowdrops are a bright spot of hope on a landscape of gray. Their white flowers stand out against the bleakness and whisper the promise that soon color will flood the world.

With these feelings held firmly in heart and mind I created a new version of the snowdrops . This time I chose complimentary colors, applied them wet to the background and allowed them to mix to grayish-blue hue which better represents the cloud cover of our winter months.

By changing the colors, I changed the mood and created an image that reflects my feelings of finding these little white blooms after a long, cold winter.