The NH mountains were snow white but not Sugar Hill

 After a COVID hiatus of a few years, our merry band of plein air painters headed for Sunset Hill House in Sugar Hill, NH https://www.thesunsethillhouse.com/ for the annual winter gathering.  Unfortunately, February temperatures were unseasonably warm and in the 40's, with a shrinking snow cover on the Hotel's premises. The distant range of the White Mountains to the east and the Green Mountains of Vermont in the west seen from our hotel were still covered in a white blanket of packed snow though. Every morning the sunrise over the White Mountains never failed to present a colorful palette to our waking eyes.

At the start of the day most of the painters walked out from the classroom porch and within a few feet set up their easels. Others chose to hike a bit to find other vistas to paint and still others hopped in their cars and sought farther points of interests.

The above three, 12x16 oil sketches are what I painted during my 3 day stay: two are scenes from the premises and the other is painted along the frozen Ham Branch Gale River a short drive from hotel.  All finished during an outdoor session of no more than two or three hours. 

One afternoon another artist and I decided to travel to the beautifully detailed and well maintained Sugar Hill Community Church not far from our hotel. I always liked looking at the simple architecture of New England's steepled wooden houses of worship. Most difficult to draw it's entirety on a 8x10 sheet of paper when the foundation is always the starting point for a drawing. So from the back of my car I looked skyward and focused on drawing just the steeple using General's charcoal pencils and kneaded eraser.  Soon the fast disappearing sun was making the winter temperature difficult to work in, so I drew two more charcoal drawings before heading back for dinner.

Having dinner together at a local restaurant. Look at all those rosy cheeks. Ah fresh air!

Here's the communal lunch and snack table in the classroom basement. Such a wide assortment of foods for sharing!  Nourishment is very important to an outdoor painter.

Once home and rested, I played with my artwork on the computer using filters with interesting results: what was painted in colors, now is rendered in black and white & what was once a b/w charcoal drawing is now colorized.