01 February, 2026 0 comments Leave a comment

Last month I finished this painting Dancing With the Stars, varnished watercolour on 9 x 12 inch panel. 

It was inspired by my travels in northern Canada, especially my recent trip to Churchill, Manitoba to see epic northern lights. 

The rolling landscape with sparse trees also reminds me of our snowmobile adventures in Labrador a decade ago.

I prepared for this painting, along with three others, by making these 2 x 2 inch concept drawings of snowy scenes with aurora skies, in my sketchbook.

Then I created full sized pencil drawings on 300 lb watercolour paper.

I worked on all four paintings at the same time, using the same colours.

This is a tactic I employ often to save on paint and time. As I waited for one painting to dry, I worked on the others, using brushes already loaded with the appropriate colours.

DANCING WITH THE STARS DAY 1:

MASKING AND FIRST AURORA LAYER

I taped my sketched watercolour paper onto a rigid waterproof support and masked off the horizon with tape to preserve the white of the snow while I painted the sky. Reference photos are shown around the painting.

I also spattered masking fluid randomly across the upper half of the sky. This protects little dots of white paper that eventually will look like stars in the sky.

After wetting the sky area with clean water, and using five paint colours (each with its own separate paint brush), I quickly painted the basic shapes of the aurora and dark sky around it. Then I let the painting dry overnight.

DAY 2: AURORA LAYER 2

Using the first layer of colours as my guide, I brushed the same five colours onto the sky, starting to overlap the edges of some light shapes with darker colours. This smooths out the colour transitions. 

Then I let the painting dry overnight.

DAY 3: AURORA LAYER 3

Using the existing colour placement as my guide, I wet the sky area with clean water and added paint on top of the existing colours.

Some green areas were darkened with blue to contrast with the remaining luminous greens. Then I let the painting dry overnight.

DAY 4: FINAL AURORA LAYER

I was happy with the overall shapes and colours in the sky. After wetting the entire sky with clean water, I used my two darker blue pigments and a negative painting technique to make the luminous shapes more feathery. I let the painting dry overnight and then removed the masking tape and masking fluid.

DAY 5: SNOW AND TREES

I decided I didn't like the bear idea that was in the initial sketch and replaced it with a cluster of boulders and some small trees peeking out of the snow.

After drawing these new objects with pencil, I wet the entire snow area with clean water and painted in soft blue-grey shadows to indicate contour changes in the snow.

After an hour's pause to let the paper dry, I used a very fine rigger brush to paint in the trees. The dark (almost black) paint mixture was created by combining complimentary colours navy and brown and very little water.

Using two mixtures of warm tan and cool grey, mixed from primary colours, I painted random patchy colour on the stones. 

Once dry, I added a few darker shadows and cracks to make the boulders look more natural. 

Then I painted the foreground trees, shrubs, and twigs to complete the scene.

I love the way the northern lights seem to swirl through the starry sky, so I titled this painting Dancing With the Stars, (varnished watercolour on 9 x 12 inch panel). For purchase inquiries or more information about this artwork, click here.

I mounted the completed watercolour onto an archival wood panel, protected it with UV-blocking varnish, and framed it in a black wood float frame, shown here.

If you are interested in the details of this mounting process, see my free article Framing Watercolours Without Glass, or purchase my art instruction book Watercolour Toolbox.

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