Online Watercolor Painting Demo

Watercolor Painting Of Moonlight On The Snowy Landscape Of A Winter Night

I’ll be doing an online painting demo as part of my Virtual Open Studio on Saturday, December 13th, 2025.

Since we’re near the winter solstice, I thought a winter night scene would be appropriate. The demo is based on the painting above. I’ll demo ideas for representing moonlight and nighttime along with methods of painting darks without making them muddy!

I’ll use a limited color palette that includes low intensity hues that work well for any winter scene - day or night. The color palette includes : Indanthrene Blue, Cerulean Blue, Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna.

The key to any night landscape is to re-arrange the normal value structure. In the case of a snow-covered winter landscape, the value switch happens between the sky and the ground plane - the sky becomes darker and the ground plane becomes lighter than in daylight scenes. The switch is a bit tricky and offends our senses, making it difficult to paint the scene so that it looks right.

The demo begins at 12:00 Noon. Join the Zoom virtual meeting using the link on the Studio Gallery page.

The demo is just one of three events planned for the virtual open studio event. The other two are a virtual studio tour with the presentation and discussion about several recent paintings and at 3:45, a live drawing to pick the winner of the painting raffle.

I hope you’ll be able to join me for at least part of this virtual open studio!