Original artwork description:

“Frigid Waters” takes place in Lake of the Woods, Canada. After being cabin bound for 3 days, My mother & I decided we needed to get out for awhile so we set out on a kayak trip. The month of May can be fickle though, and the rain turned to snow. Luckily we only had to go about half a mile back to the cabin, but it was a very cold half mile with choppy waves that had to be carefully negotiated in a kayak.
In the accompanying images you will see the photos I took for reference on that day. In the painting I wanted to emphasize the frothy churnings in the foreground water and deepen the shadows in the scene overall. I changed the color of the figure’s coats to red to draw attention to them. The snow effects were achieved by masking spots on the paper while painting the washes in the sky and then scratching a palette knife across when dry.