Lesa Robertson's Artistic Voyage
Richard Butler Dr Whitby, ON, Canada

"Geometric Giverny" - Oils 24 x 24. After painting water lilies with incredible artist Christine Lashley, I couldn't wait to go through my own Giverny photos from our trip to France in 2017. One photo reference really attracted me. The strong geometric shapes and reflections called out for a square canvas. I intentionally placed the horizon line close to the centre (usually a no-no in art) I used a dinner plate to sketch the tree and reflections carefully measuring all of the reflections as per Christine's instruction. I look forward to painting more images from Monet's magical gardens.

"The Golden Hour in Giverny" - Oils. I painted this scene from Monet's Garden along with Christine Lashley in her terrific instructional video "Vibrant Landscapes". I can't wait to go through all my photos of this magical place from our trip to France in 2017 and paint more water lilies.

"City Sparkle" - Oils. This scene was a paint along with wonderful artist Christine Lashley who I discovered a couple of years ago. I invested in her instructional DVD called "Paintings that Sparkle" and found it very worthwhile. I really enjoyed painting this scene and look forward to painting more nocturnes using some of the techniques that I learned.

"Dreamliner's Dolomites" - This water mixable oil painting was completed as part of a monthly challenge set by an international group of artists on facebook. I joined this private facebook group after meeting many of the same artists daily as we watched Streamine Art Videos during the Coronavirus. I don't always get the monthly challenge done but I really loved the image submitted by one of our artists from Italy and I decided to paint it fast and get er done.

Since the start of Covid 19 isolation, I've been tuning in almost daily to artist demonstrations offered free by Streamline Art Video. I've learned so much and am now part of a private facebook group of 100 + artists from all over the world. It's so inspiring. This album will feature some of the artwork created during this strange time.

"Socially Distancing on the Beach" - Oils. This painting was completed painting along with wonderful Holland artist Roos Schuring during my recent virtual workshop Plein Air Live. I'm still getting used to my water mixable oils and really enjoyed adding figures to the landscape in a loose gestural style. Roos added her figures with a palette knife but I'm not there yet. The painting gets it's title from these weird Covid 19 times. It looked to me that the people on the beach were safely distancing themselves.

"Slice of Summer" - Oils. I attended a virtual plein air workshop last month called Plein Air Live - me and about 1500 others from around the world. It was 4 days of jam packed demonstrations, lectures and critiques from wonderful artists from around the world. I am slowly making my way painting along with the various artists using water mixable oils that I am still getting used to. This summery still life is one of my first to finish painting along with Suzie Baker.

"Let's Just Dip Our Toes" - Water Mixable Oils. This oil painting was inspired by a photo of my grandchildren as they recently walked along the edge of Georgian Bay while visiting family in Parry Sound. Hank and Pearl had their backs to the photographer and I thought it might be fun to use their poses in a beach scene. I took the liberty of changing Pearl's hat and giving her a bucket to carry. I added some beach toys and some flip flops and some surf for contrast. I'm still getting used to the oils and really enjoyed painting this summery scene. I can almost hear Hank saying "Let's just dip our toes".

"Bridge to the Vatican" - Water Colour. The reference photo for this painting was taken in the summer of 2012. Our trip to Italy was in celebration of my retirement and it was a wonderful vacation. We recently talked about going back to explore other parts of this beautiful country. I tried to use many of the same techniques that I learned from painting along with Thomas Schaller. I purposely kept the background buildings very soft but I intentionally played up St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. At first glance you may not notice the figures but some tiny cyclists and pedestrians dot the sidewalk behind the bridge. These bridge paintings have prompted me to go back and look at vacation photos to look for other beautiful bridges to paint.

"Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II" after Tom Schaeller - After watching Tom Schaller's demo on Streamline Art Video, I purchased his instructional DVD. Being a fan, I already had his book "Architect of Light" The DVD took a while to arrive from Florida but was worth the wait. It gave me time to purchase some of his recommended paints. I felt like I was having a personal art lesson in the studio. I painted along with Tom using the same colours he used and the techniques he demonstrated. I practised the figures ahead of time. He added a big tree on the left side and I opted to pass on that. Frankly I was afraid I might wreck it. I decided to look through all of our Italy photos from 2012 and actually found a photo of this same bridge leading to the Vatican. Stay tuned.

"The Great Wall" - Water colour. This is the final piece created for my motorcycling friend. On one of those trips he got to climb the Great Wall. The painting was designed using a few photos that he provided. I used the distant sky and rolling hills from one photo and pieced together the wall from other photos. The wall in the reference photos was very gray so I chose to play the colour up using some warmer tones. I also eliminated any figures walking along the wall. There's a lot of greenery in the composition. In the background it is cooler and less defined. The greens are toned down with mauve and blue mixtures. The greenery gets warmer and more defined as it nears the foreground. The trio of paintings look good together. They will be framed the same way and hang together in a space along with other travel gems.

Some close up and some distant portraits or figures of family, friends and strangers.

"Sunrise on the Gobi Desert" - This is the second of 3 paintings commissioned by my motorcycle friend. The photo reference he provided was very dark. I played around on the computer and lightened it considerably (with approval of course). Otherwise it would have ended up being a nocturne painting. The other changes I made involved removing all trucks, towers and vehicles so that only the yurt and the motorcycles remained. My biggest challenge in this painting was the desert... in the foreground. I tested a lot of ways to capture the dried up surface with bits of grass here and there but I wasn't happy with the look. Finally, I zoomed in closely on the area and this allowed me to see the little stones and gravel and even tire tread marks. So I decided to use techniques for painting sand and stones. I used cupboard mac tack to cover all areas of the paper that I wanted to protect such as the sky, tent, motorcycles and walkway. I applied a light wash on the foreground in the lightest colour visible. Then I splattered thin coats of masking fluid, followed by layers of desert ground colours letting each coat dry thoroughly. This is important so that the colours don't run. At this point I was able to remove the mac tack. Once I had the undercoat done complete with little shadows on the gravel and stones, I laid in the green, lavendar and orange wash using a wet in wet process to avoid any hard edges. Painting the motorcycles was my favourite part. What an amazing motorcycle trip this must have been. See more

"Road to Mt Fitz Roy" - Water colour. A long time friend of mine has gone on many exciting motorcycle trips around the world and he asked me to paint 3 scenes from his reference photos. This first painting was inspired by a photo taken on the highway leading to Mt Fitz Roy, a mountain in Patagonia on the border between Argentina and Chile. The road (Ruta 40) is reknowned to be one of the most beautiful in the world. When my friend took this photo he and another 8 motorcyclist...s were stopped at the side of road. I was immediately struck by the way the road leads your eye right up to the mountains so I extended the highway a bit further than the reference. My biggest challenge in painting this image was the sky and the way the 3359 m mountain disappeared up into the clouds. These elements (the clouds and mountains) needed to be painted at the same time and quickly to avoid any hard edges. If you look very carefully you can see a fence running along the highway on the right hand side. I suspect it's there to prevent animals and wildlife from running onto the highway.

"Claire" - This water colour portrait was based on my sweet 7 year old grand daughter Claire's school photo. Just as in her sister's portrait, I had to ask my son to send me a close up photo of her eyes. I actually painted her eyes at the same time as I painted Avery's eyes. I had just watched a few videos on "how to paint eyes in water colour" so I wanted to practise the techniques right away. I used many many glazes on her face trying to capture the various shadows. I probably could have pushed the shadows further but I opted to stop. I'm really happy with how the paintings of the sisters turned out. They are beautiful little girls and fun to paint. This is the second time I have painted their portraits in water colour. The last time was in 2015 and those paintings can be found in the "Portraits" album.

"Avery" - My sweet 10 year old granddaughter is the second installment of this album focussing on water colour close ups. There are layers of glazes on her face using some pinks instead of reds to capture her fair colouring. I watched a few videos on "how to paint eyes" and did a practice run before tackling them on the painting. I had to contact my son to ask him to photograph her eyes close up so I could see the real colour. I've decided to paint our entire family and it's great fun looking through the masses pf photos to find some good reference photos.

"Selfie at Monet's Garden" - Water colour. My first entry into this album called "Faces" is a selfie that I took the day we visited Giverny France in 2018 and toured Monet's home and famous gardens. We were so lucky to have a gorgeous sunny day in June to tour the property. The sun and shadows on my face are what drew me to paint this image. There are at least 6 glazes on my face, using raw sienna, scarlet lake, cerulean blue and mineral violet. I learned to paint using water colour glazes at workshops offered by Meta 4 Gallery in Port Perry. Painting the sunglasses and my plaid travel hat were my favourite part of this painting. That burberry cap has made it into at least 3 self portraits so far. I think those who know me might recognize me.

"Ellen's Picasso" - Acrylic. I was looking through the thousands of photos on my phone recently and found this image. I remembered that I had taken the photo when I was looking through Ellen Degeneres' book called "Home." Ellen loves interior design and she has an extensive art collection. I found her book and many of her quotes very inspiring. She encourages everyone to collect art as it is available at so many price points and can bring so much life and energy to a space. Her painting was unsigned (on the front) )as far as I could tell so I'm thinking it's not an original Picasso but it's certainly in his style. I changed the palate slightly on my version and decided not to sign it either.

"Friends" - Acrylic. We took a road trip in March 2013 and met up with friends in Hilton Head South Carolina for a week. We stayed in a large beach house and rented bikes for the week. We had a wonderful time and I've been wanting to paint this image for a while. We had stopped for a coffee after a bike ride one morning. It was still a bit cool but lovely to be sitting out under an umbrella. I employed quite a bit of artistic license in this painting. To start, I had to add... myself to the group around the table since I had taken the photo. And I wanted to add our bikes so I placed a ficticious bike rack in front of the cafe. The bench is a replica of the one from the opening scene in Forest Gump. We got to sit on it when we took a day trip to Savannah. Most of the back ground is made up to add to the feel of this charming tourist area. I added some Hilton Head posters in place of the windows of the coffee shop. This painting really makes me smile and evokes very fond memories of this trip. It's now hanging in our den with numerous other paintings of our travels. See more

"City Park Chic" - Acrylic. This is another of those painting experiments. I started with the sepia graded wash going from darker to lighter. Then I used a sponge to apply the tree foliage in neutral colours of dark grey and light grey. I haven't used a sponge to paint very often. It's really important to use a dry sponge for the best effect. And you absolutely need to let one colour dry before applying a new sponge colour on top. I painted in the tree trunks after everything... was dry. I tried painting in a mist with some watery zinc white at the horizon line but it didn't show up very well against the sepia tone. I decided not to apply a second wash because it was negatively affecting the detail of the foliage. This type of experimenting does help with the learning process even if the results are questionable. The final image struck me as quite a sophisticated forest, hence the title "City Park Chic".

"Five Layer Forest" - Acrylic. I've been doing some experimental painting during this coronavirus isolation period and I've been hesitant to post some of this work because frankly, it's just not that great. However, I gave it some thought and decided to post photos of the images anyway. So many of my instructors have talked about the pile of paintings that they either cut up or burn in a bonfire because they consider them failures. I personally wouldn't want to do that. Each ...painting represents something - a new colour scheme or a new technique. It's part of my evolution as an artist. In this painting, I wanted to practise the graded wash in acrylic and wondered how it would look in sepia tones. I used peachy tones for the sky and reflections also added in graded tones. It took a few layers of application to cover the sepia tones with peach. I scanned through some of my reference books for ideas and added several layers of horizon and trees and rocks to add in the foreground, hence the title, "Five Layer Forest". I may end up painting over it one day but it's not going in a bonfire anytime soon.

AMENDMENT: Earlier this year, before the news of a world wide Coronavirus pandemic, I applied to the Oshawa Art Association to rent a space at the upcoming Art Show and Sale coming up on April 17 - 19 at Camp Samac in Oshawa. However, in view of the Coronavirus Pandemic, I have decided not to participate. I've been preparing like crazy but these are truly extenuating circumstances. I've asked the committee to consider cancelling or postponing the event. But I'm not sure what decision will be made. If you happen to be interested in any artwork that I have posted, please message me directly and we can talk. Thank you for checking out my facebook page. I love to hear your comments.

"Toronto Skyline" - Acrylic. I was inspired to paint this scene after watching an on-line workshop on how to paint reflection in water. I started off with a long narrow canvas that would accommodate the Toronto skyline. I've been wanting to paint this for a while. In his on line workshop, the insructor had suggested dividing the canvas into 1/3 sky and 2/3 reflection but I needed more sky to fit the CN Tower. I worked from many photos to piece together other key landmarks su...ch as the Roger's Centre. After reviewing the notes I had taken on 6 Jan 2020, I measured out the height of the sky and and placed some one inch tape across the bottom of the horizon line. I mixed up lots of blues and peach colours and painted in the sky using a large brush. I removed the tape while the sky was wet and then let it dry overnight. The next day I laid down some tape horizontally above the water line. Using white chalk I positioned the CN Tower and the Roger's centre at about the 1/3 line. I mixed many reflection colours and worked in small sections at a time painting vertical stripes of colour with blue at the bottom. While still wet, I used a large dry brush and back and forth motion to blur the lines. My colour selection for the reflection was quite random except for the CN Tower and Rogers centre. I chalked in the various towers and skyscrapers and took my time painting them, using colours that would make sense with the reflection. I recently bought some acrylic "mirror" paint and decided to use it here and there to reinforce the highlights. This was really fun to paint and I might try another city skyline sometime.

"Canyon Cowboy"- Acrylic. My goal in creating this scene was to tell a story. Viewers will hopefully come up with their own stories. So the painting becomes much more than a landscape of the Grand Canyon. In my story this horse and cowboy have great trust in each other. This isn't the first time they've visited this outlook and I doubt if it will be the last. Maybe they're out for a ride on a beautiful day or running an errand nearby. They aren't carrying much so I expect t...hey'll be returning to home base at some point today. So I'm thinking they live on a ranch nearby making a daytrip to this special place possible from time to time. Perhaps when they first discovered this outlook, the cowboy dismounted at the entrance to the ledge on the far left and then slowly walked his horse out to the ledge to get him comfortable with it. Now it's become a routine treat for both of them. They appear to be in awe of the view. Maybe it's their secret place. I love this story. This is the first time that I've created a story telling painting from multiple references and I've really enjoyed the challenge. I look forward to painting more stories.

Stage 15 - When I'm working on a painting I try to address any issues that I notice during my observation phase before moving on. I make a list so I don't forget. Today while on the treadmill I noticed 3 things: 1) add another spike on the upper left mountain (near the middle of painting) 2) darken the shadows near the black crevice (looks like a 7) and 3 )intensify all shadows on the upper left mountain. I try to address these before tackling anything else new. My primary g...oal for today was to complete all the cast shadows for the shrubs and the horse and cowboy. I had already researched shadows near high noon and had sketched out the shapes I was going for. I took my cues for the shadows from the shadow under the flower pot rock. (The cast shadow is almost directly underneath the rock). I mixed a runny wash of ultramarine blue and orange purposely keeping the shadows all the same intensity and fairly light. I didn't want them to be distracting. I must have painted and wiped off the shadow of the horse and cowboy at least 3 or 4 times before I was happy with it. The shrubs and cactus were a bit easier. Mainly I just tried to get them going the same direction, the same intensity and quite short. Shadows are really challenging to paint. You get one chance to lay down the colour and shape otherwise it can get too hard edged and dark. So you need to be decisive and keep mixing your paint so that the colours don't separate. However the beauty of acrylic paint is that if you don't like it, you can wipe it off while it's wet and keep on trying. I had some good shadow colour left over so I decided to push the shadows on the upper left mountain a bit more. And I added a few more spiky shrubs (Mountain Yucca).

Stage 14 - I'm getting close to the finish line and decided to concentrate on the foreground rockface adding a few more cracks, crevices and shadows. I also added more details and shadows on the upper left rock. I used a specialty brush (similar to a fan brush) to add horizontal hghlights on the mountainside. I liked the effect so I used the same brush with different colours making sure the paint dried between layers. I also added a few more spiky bushes including one beside the horse and cowboy. I did some research on shadows at high noon and decided on how I would tackle the shadows. I started painting them and ended up wiping them off while the paint was still wet. That's enough for today.

Stage 13 - For some reason the shrubs and greenery I had added were't looking natural to me. It might have been the intense colour. It would have been easier to wipe them off while the paint was stil wet but I had let the paint dry overnight. So I remixed the colours of the backdrop and the canyon rocks and removed all the greenery except for the shrubs on the upper left. I really didn't want to retouch the sky. I did some research and found another reference photo with some cactus and spikey shrubs which I adjusted to fit my image. I like the natural effect much better. I may end up adding more but that's enough for now. While I was painting over the old shrubs I decided to paint over the shadow of the horse and cowboy. It was in the wrong place for the current light conditions.

Stage 12 - After a couple of busy days with no time to paint, I was anxious to get back to it. It's time to tackle the trees and shrubs so I watched a couple of videos to get primed and ready. Realistic foliage can be a challenge to paint. I mixed many shades of green from dark to light, and using my reference photo as a guide, I added them onto the canyon rocks at various spots and crevices. I started with the darkest values and added lighter colours on top. I found the shr...ubs were too green so I dulled them down by adding some yellow and raw umber. Better but I still have issues with the look. I left out a lot of the trees and shrubs in the lower left corner intentionally so that the pathway to the lookout ledge stayed wide and roomy for the horse and cowboy to retreat. I painted the tree shadow in the lower left at least 3 times, making it smaller until I was happy with the look. I have to admit that I'm not sure I like these shrubs. I'm going to leave it for a day and study the painting but they may have to go. Something about them just isn't working for me.

Stage 11 - I readjusted the upper left mountain again. I had a few edges out of place and they were affecting the overall look. I also added some more highlights and shadows. I just read some tips from an artist who said that most of his students don't push the dark values far enough. That seemed to apply in my case. I'm pleased with the effect of the focal point - the horse and cowboy are standing out more against the backdrop. ... My reference photo has some shrubs growing on the lookout rock. I started to add them and immediately didn't like the look. It was taking away from the horse and cowboy. So I wiped the paint off while wet. LESSON: Don't be a slave to your photo! This is a lesson that I need to remind myself of constantly.

My husband and I are planning a trip to the Grand Canyon area this year. I'm inspired to paint the incredible scenery before even stepping foot near it. This album will house what I hope will be plenty of paintings inspired by this trip.

Stage 9 - I added more shadows on the lower front rocks and softened the dark crevices on the upper left rocks. I found that the contrast was just too much. I also added more definition around the flower pot rock so that it stands out more in front of the background. Painting is all about illusion and creating a 3D effect on a flat surface. I also worked on adding more definition on the horse's feet, knees and tail. We were at the Medieval Times earlier this week and I had ...a great opportunity to study the legs of the beautiful Andalusian horses. I think that I'm going to have to return to the horse and cowboy to add some more oomph to my focal point. I decided to add my signature while I had some watery orange paint mixture. I'm getting close to completion.

Stage 8 - I continued to work on the upper left rock trying a technique that I heard about a while ago. The idea is to mix 3 or 4 rock colours from light to dark and make sure your big brush (3/4 to 1 in wide) has all colours loaded from one side to the other. Sweep the brush across the rock face dropping a dark line and all other colours below. The idea is to create striations of colour that look more natural. Believe me - it's a lot harder to do than it sounds. I concentra...ted on capturing the light and dark values, making corrections to the shape of the rocks and capturing the yellow orange glow. I also visually extended the width of the pathway to the lookout by adding more tinted white. I wanted to make it look substantial enough to safely allow the horse and cowboy to retreat. I added some tinted white highlights to the flower pot rock and the left mid rocks to help them advance against the distant canyon.

Stage 7 - I worked on the upper left rocks trying to capture the shadows and crevices. I need to make sure these canyon rocks stand out in front of the distant canyon. I also added some more detail to the flower pot rock so that it stands out in front of the rocks on the upper left. I mixed some white and violet and applied everywhere that I had applied white previously. I had forgotten the advice of one of the painters that I viewed on-line. NEVER apply straight white. ALWA...YS tint with something such as violet, orange, yellow. I like the effect much better. It's hard to remember all of the painting advice and I'm hoping practice will reinforce these principles. I'm struggling with the canyon rocks because I don't want to get too detailed yet these canyon rocks have so many horizontal lines and crevices. Rocks are very challenging to paint. This is just a first pass. I'll be working on this area for a while. But I'm liking the contrast between the front rocks and the distant rocks. It sure makes the horse and cowboy look small in comparison.

Stage 6 - In this stage I worked on blocking in colour and shadows to the rocks in front as well as to the flower pot rock to the left of the horse and cowboy. I used some fairly thick textured paint to mimic the texture of the rock. This is one of the reasons that I use heavy body acrylic paint. It allows you to build up the lines and crevices that you find in rocks. I also added a short shadow to the right of the horse and cowboy.

Stage 5 - Now that I have the background painted, I can concentrate on the horse and cowboy. I held my original drawing up to the white unpainted horse and cowboy and readjusted my drawing for accuracy. Initially I had planned to paint the horse brown but I decided to leave him light and dappled to have more contrast with the background. I'll come in later and finish the horse's feet once I have the rock they are standing on painted. I'm trying to be very careful in ensuring... that there is ample room for the horse and cowboy to safely retreat. I may expand the size of the rock ledge they are standing on. The use of including the horse and cowboy in this scene is known as exploiting scale. It immediately conveys that the canyon is huge. That's the effect that I'm going for. I also have an opportunity to exaggerate the lighting on the horse and cowboy as well as on the front rocks. The distant rocks are almost in the shade and a long distance away.

Stage 4 - I continued to add more green, orange and purple shapes and shadows in the background, keeping the area muted and with very little detail to show how vast and distant it is. I'm really liking this colour scheme and soft palette.

Stage 3 - Continuing down the distant canyon, I mixed a very grayed green and blocked in behind the horse and cowboy. To achieve a smooth application, I sometimes painted over the horse and cowboy and immediately used a Qtip to remove the paint while it was still wet. Using a dark purple mixture, I captured the dark values and very blurred shapes that stood out while squinting. I also added some light and dark paint on the central canyon in the background, trying not to get too detailed.

Stage 2 - Even though my horse and cowboy are the central focal point, I can't paint them until I've painted the canyon behind them. So I decided to start with the sky and work my way down. I tried a few skies before settling on this fairly simple sky. The inspiration photo had a sky full of clouds but it looked way too busy. There's so much going on in my planned painting that I don't want the sky to compete for attention. Using some mauve and maroon colours, I blocked in the very distant upper canyon rocks. They are very muted in my reference photo. So that's the look I'm going for.

Stage 1 - Last week I started a new painting of the Toronto Skyline but I had to set it aside temporarily because I really wanted to paint another Grand Canyon image, this time with a horse and cowboy. I decided to do a preliminary sketch because I wanted to make sure that the horse and cowboy were the right proportion for the vast canyon. I worked from at least 4 reference photos to obtain the right stance for the horse. I laid down some light runny washes of colour that wi...ll be my roadmap for painting. I deliberately left the horse and cowboy unpainted so that I could retain the proportions. It's very rare that I assign a title on the first day that I start a painting but this is an exception. I think I'm going to call this painting "Canyon Cowboy".

"The River Runs Through It" - Acrylic. I took some time to analyze the painting after the last stage and decided to remove the mauve mist that I had put in during the last stage. It was bothering me. I mixed up some deep shadow colours and some lighter highlights as well as some orange rock colour and painted over the mist, effectively extending the bases of those canyon rocks. I immediately liked it much better. This is one of the things that I love about painting with acryl...ics. You can always paint over something you don't like. I added more details on the center rocks where the diagonal lines meet. I mixed a very watery maroon colour wash and added it to the lower left mid ground area where the shrubs are in shadows. I added the same wash on the lower front rocks on the left and right. I had to lay the canvas flat because the wash was so runny it was starting to drip. Finally, I added some periwinkle highlights on the lower right rocks and dragged a big brush through to soften the effect. I'll keep analyzing but I think I'm done. I can't wait to see this wonder of the world in person. I really enjoyed painting this image and look forward to painting more scenes of the Grand Canyon.

Stage 11 - I added some mauve mist at the base of the upper mid rocks on the right and the left. It's really hard to see the details in the reference photo but I thought mist would be pretty believable. I'm not sure that I like it but I'll study it. Thinking that I might be close to being done, I signed the painting. It's been 12 days since I started. (not painting every day but most days) I'll take a couple of days to study and analyze it to see if any fine tuning is required. I'm trying not to overwork it.

Stage 10 - I've been working my way up the canyon. Now I'm putting the maroon shadows on the upper orange rocks on the left. On the very upper white rocks, I mixed a bluish mauve for the shadows and cracks. I purposefully left some of the upper rock edges soft as they blend into the clouds. I went over all of the pure white highlights with either a pale orange/white mixture or a violet/white mixture after hearing advice yesterday from an artist painting Matterhorn Canyon in... Yosemite. He cautioned never to use a pure white on your highlights. I revisted the river and added a bit more reflection in the water. I toned down any other white highlights in that vicinity of the painting.