Purple Road Home (Prints)

Description

Excited by a new and beautiful purple on my palette, I began with a dynamic sky, layering complementary orange with soft yellow highlights. From there, I built the purple mountains, carefully varying the tree lines with both light and dark values. The snow demanded patience; I had to step back often to understand how it interacted with the whites and deeper tones. My first pass included a full snowy field, but once it was in place, the heavy, lumpy snow berms split the composition in two. I knew it had to go. In a moment of angst, I began scraping it away. After the first diagonal pull, I stopped. The painting instantly came alive. A road appeared. The fence line, with its crooked posts and wonky wire, adds a sense of familiarity, like the feeling of a walk home. When the painting is propped in front of a sunlit window, the sky and wire glow with a warmth that feels almost backlit, a quiet reminder to me that God is behind everything. In the end, the alpenglow and vibrant color palette feel resolved, and I am deeply pleased with where the piece landed.

Heather Mehra-Pedersen – Artist