I have often wondered what it would look like if I painted my maps with a totally "other" fantastical color palette, and this was my first attempt at doing so. The winter season in Portland is rather depressing—but when it snows it's magical, and I wanted to capture that magic on canvas with a new rendition of Portland that's as if the whole city where covered with snow for a very "white-out" pure texture rendition of Portland.
The "before" stage of this painting was also pretty fantastical and I could probably explore more iterations there too. As a base layer, I started with all of the color I wanted to subtly appear beneath the thick layer of white paint. I think this paired-down color palette really highlights the overall structure of the city in an interesting way. 
Just for fun I had to photograph this piece with some literal snow, although we had to drive pretty far up Mt. Hood to get some! When it does snow in Portland, I'm usually too busy snuggling up and enjoying the views to bring a painting outside for a photoshoot, so I'm glad I did this!
Maybe I should do more map paintings in a selective color palette!
