Passage of Light

Sometimes my painting ideas begin as a teaching demo. I had done a small pastel version of this composition as a demo on painting snow in pastel. It proved to be an ideal subject for capturing light and shadow on the snow, and I felt that it contained lots of juicy elements that make for a visually captivating image, and I could see it working nicely in oil. The pastel demo sold right after the demo, and so I worked it up in a small oil study to work out the color mixtures before tackling this. The location of the scene is the central Oregon Cascade Mountains...this view is from Dutchman Flat facing the left edge of Mt. Bachelor.