Plein air painter Kathleen McDonnell uses color and light to imbue her snowy landscapes with a strong sense of mood.
By Michael Chesley Johnson
Kathleen McDonnell’s western New York home is surrounded by evergreens, which often serve as subjects for her paintings. “Living in the woods has helped me build a connection with the landscape,” she says. “While the familiar subjects are important, the mood of these landscapes touches me more deeply. It’s not just a rock, tree, or wildflower, but the way these parts are connected with the whole landscape. Through color and light, I try to capture the spirit, strength, beauty, and power that exist in the landscape—to capture the mood and not just the place.”
Demo: Two Palettes, Two Moods
Here, McDonnell demonstrates her ability to employ color and light effectively to instill two distinct moods in the same scene—depicted in both summer and winter.
SUMMER: Morning Walk is a pastel painting that I completed using a full-color palette. The light was just beginning to fall across the treetops in this summer morning scene.
WINTER: I decided to create a pastel of the same view as that seen in Morning Walk based on photo references taken during one of my winter snowshoe outings. The trails in the park were snow-covered, and the foggy, misty atmosphere made me feel as though I was floating along the path.
Value Studies: All my pastels begin with a value study in black, white, and gray. For this winter scene, I developed several compositions and then chose a horizontal view similar to that of Morning Walk.
Pastel Application: While referring to the value study, I began my pastel drawing on a sanded pastel board dry-mounted to conservation board. I then applied a black hard pastel in the areas with the darkest values. Using Turpenoid on a stiff bristle brush, I liquefied the hard pastel to lighten some of the dark values. I completed the lighter values by dabbing with the Turpenoid-loaded brush and applying a gray hard pastel.
Final Adjustments: Because I’d completed Morning Walk in this same location, I was familiar with the shapes beneath the snow-covered road and of the foliage. With fewer than 15 warm and cool grays and a limited use of a cool, muted green, I completed A Winter Walk. Warm neutrals in the foreground provide a further touch of color. Even though the location and shapes are much the same as those in Morning Walk, the conveyed mood is completely different.
Materials for A Winter Walk
Surface: UART 400 paper, dry-mounted on conservation board
Pastels: Cretacolor and Prismacolor NuPastel to start—then Unison, Great American, Schmincke, and Blue Earth added
Other: Weber Odorless Turpenoid applied with a stiff bristle brush (Grumbacher No. 12 flat) to lighten areas of dark-value hard pastel; No. 1 Guerrilla Painter oil-painting brush to lift pastel for corrections; single-edged razor blade to sharpen pastels
About the Artist
Kathleen McDonnell is a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod, the Pastel Society of the West Coast, and an artist member of the Buffalo Society of Artists. She has received local and national awards, including the Award of Distinction from the Midwest Pastel Society; Merit Awards from the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod; the Scholarship Award and the Elizabeth Mowry Award from the Pastel Society of the West Coast; and the B&V Griffuni Purchase Award from the Pastel Society of America.
About the Author
Michael Chesley Johnson is an artist, workshop instructor, and author of the book, Beautiful Landscape Painting Outdoors: Mastering Plein Air.