Altostratus

Went out painting yesterday in winter conditions for the first time this season. As I drove to the designated meeting spot, I was almost mesmerized by the sky...it was an overcast (altostratus clouds for those familiar) with the sun weakly showing through, kind of the "frosted glass" effect. Really beautiful. I knew I wanted to try to capture that effect. It's tricky, like with a sunset, because the sun is the brightest thing but it's not white. It actually looked a little greenish, with a halo of faint red around it. I used those colors and was able to get the effect (not sure how well it translates here), but didn't capture the apparent brightness of the sun. I'll have to experiment in the studio.

It was about 20 deg with a light wind...not too bad but the paint does get thick at those temperatures. So it's hard to get much detail. I was in a bit of a hurry to get the sky, and didn't pay as much attention to the rest of the composition as I should have...see some things I'd change (probably the sun is too far up in the corner, for one thing). This may serve as a reference for a larger studio painting this winter. Oil on canvas, 8x10.