While terrible for the trees, an early snowfall is gorgeous to see and enjoy. The stark whites and blues intermixed with the last foliage broadens the palette. It’s like the best of winter and summer combined. Of course it also means many limbs will come crashing down, to be turned into strong diagonals in the next paintings. All part of why I love working with landscape. Enjoy!
Every day brings changes. This new view of a familiar winter creek after snow is more frozen than previously. I definitely felt the cold in my bones this time. But, as always, it was worth the discomfort. That being said, next time I’ll add another layer. Enjoy.
:This study of an alternate path through the woods on a snowy day is full of the sunshine that is so dear in January. There are so many trails in these woods. I can’t help but think of Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken:
“………And I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.”
Over the years, I’ve walked many of the trails, and I am still finding more. Best is when I get off the trail, keeping the position of the sun in mind, and start exploring. I call it tromping the swamps. In winter, the abstract patterns of ice and frost collecting around clumps of grasses is so visually exciting. It was the inspiration of my large painting The Winter Pond. I look forward to working with the subject again when the temperature drops. In the meantime, I’ll try a few new trails…….Enjoy.
This is what I’m looking forward to – a chance to try out snowshoes on some fresh snow with a strong sun. Coming soon…..
Some places haunt us – they enter our hearts or psyches and take up residence. This creek in the mountains is such a place for me. Maybe it’s the music of the flowing water surrounded by silence, or the arrangement of open space and woods, but it excites me every time. Winter may be the best, as with the sun coming out after a gray morning. Whatever the secret is, I choose to simply enjoy it.
Two more little babies from the Deep Snow series, which could also be called a walk in the woods. These two are based on winter walks at Purgatory Chasm. Not an easy hike, but so worth it, especially with fresh snow and sunshine. Enjoy!
Winter is a very abstract time – the shapes and colors of life are lost under ice and snow. I think it is this abstraction that draws me toward painting winter. I love abstract expressionism, but it isn’t innately my personality. When I choose to paint winter, I can trick my brain into thinking more abstractly. Such a treat to be able to experience that change in my way of being and seeing. I start many paintings intending them to be quite abstract, but they usually turn into some kind of view, and definitely have a sense of place. So, I keep trying.
Into the woods is clearly a place, a time, a subject. But this demure setting on a winter day in dimmed light keeps some sense of its abstract underpinnings. Often, it’s that tenuous line between abstraction and reality that is most intriguing. Enjoy.
The drama of blizzard gives way to the joy of sun returning, and a chance to go outside and find out what happened. I adore the subtle colors as the light returns, and the mysteries of what lies beneath the lumps of snow. Enjoy.
Teri Malo Studio 