Canadian painter Michel Normandeau didn’t have to exercise much artistic license when depicting the atmosphere for his recent mountaintop painting.
Normandeau was painting in the Laurentian Mountains in Quebec, on Mont-Tremblant, when he painted this tonal piece. He had neither the time nor a reason to get any tighter on this painting.
The scene Normandeau saw that morning
Normandeau’s setup
“It was very early in the morning, and I was on top of Mont-Tremblant to paint the sunrise,” Normandeau says. “The temperature was 4 degrees Fahrenheit. The snow cannons were on duty. Execution of this work was very spontaneous because the light was changing very quickly. The haze of the snow cannons created an unreal atmosphere, a bit like a science fiction movie. I used a big brush to paint this one, focusing only on masses and colors. I worked on a canvas that I had toned yellow. My palette was cadmium red light, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, indigo blue, and titanium white.”
