Evocative Autumn Mountain Impressionism
White Mountain View #10 is an original 6" × 8" pastel-on-paper painting by contemporary New England landscape artist Sandra Kavanaugh.
This vibrant plein-air work captures the color shift of autumn in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Layers of native foliage glow beneath a soft, diffused sky, balancing brilliant seasonal color with the quiet depth of the distant mountain ridge.
Key Details
Title: White Mountain View #10
Artist: Sandra Kavanaugh
Medium: Pastel on paper
Dimensions: 6" × 8"
Subject: New England landscape / fall foliage and mountains
Technical Details and Style
- Medium: Professional-grade soft pastels on textured fine art paper.
- Technique: Expressive, painterly marks create both atmosphere and texture. Broad pastel strokes establish the soft mountain background, while layered scumbling in the foreground builds the dense, tactile quality of autumn leaves and brush.
- Style: Contemporary Impressionism with plein-air influence, emphasizing shifting outdoor light, seasonal color, and immediate visual impact over precise detail.
- Composition: A horizontal landscape format leads the eye from a pale path or clearing in the foreground into a dense band of brilliant autumn trees. A tall dark evergreen on the right provides a strong vertical anchor and frames the distant mountain ridge.
- Color palette: High-chroma autumn golds, fiery copper oranges, and bright lemon yellows are balanced by deep forest greens, earthy siennas, and the cool slate blues of the White Mountains.
