Archive for
Experimenting with Winter
Well, it’s cold … and bleak … and the colors have disappeared (like New Jersey, normally seen from my window). Winter is here, and my attempts last month to dispell some of the gloom by painting summer colors just didn’t last. So this time I’m just going to wallow in it, paint winter scenes, some from childhood memories, some from photos. I am experimenting with Winter, using a pallette knife (instead of a brush), on mini (6×6) canvases, gessoed (not raw canvas) and with a very limited color pallette (white, blue, brown and varying shades of gray).
It’s been a challenge, but that’s what I needed. I’ve never used a palette knife before and I admit it’s been hard to get the effect I want. These canvases are small, so the compositions are very simple. Since these are all experiments, I haven’t given them names…
Not that it matters, but the hill is based on a childhood park hill I used to ski down, and the tree is based on an old NYT photo. The more I look at it, the more I think it could be a summer beach scene (wishful thinking?) the snow is more beige than white. City snow does tend to get dirty fast, but …
Well, the snow is still beigey, but it is smoother. Maybe the pallette knife was the wrong choice for the look I’m trying to achieve.
This is clearly not a beach scene and it reminds me of the view I had in Patagonia from the top of the chair lift. I did a very different painting on raw canvas right after that trip. That was in the summer, of course, so it’s interesting I used that memory for this winter scene.
This makes me think of a fairy tale. I think I still need to soften the path leading up to the little house in the trees. Not sure where this one came from.
I have four more litttle mini canvases so there will be a sequel to this post. It’s still winter, but the weather is not bothering me so much now.
Good news vs the news
One piece of good news: I and my husband have gotten our second Moderna doses (we are both over 75). Halleluia! But it’s still not a free pass to visit our new grandchild in California. We’ll have to see what the CDC and Dr. Fauci say about whether we can shed the virus…
In the meantime, it’s been snowing in NY and I’ve been trying to paint what I am remembering (rather than focusing on the news I am seeing on TV). So two of my snow scenes…
Clearly these are both idealized winter scenes, vaguely remembered from my childhood in Canada: wide open spaces, lots of snow, some trees and a beautiful sunset.
Unfortunately, all of this is not completely distracting me from what is happening in the impeachment trial on TV. And really unfortunately, although the House Impeachment managers did an amazingly convincing job, Trump’s defense attorneys were anything but convincing (we all saw the whole thing unfold on TV) and we all know Donald Trump is guilty, he was acquitted. Mitch McConnell tried to have it both ways: Trump is guilty as sin, but I (Mitch) voted for acquittal. It’s enough to make you tear your hair out!
But I’ve been called the eternal optimist (among other things), so …
My snow scenes, I think, are peaceful, calm … rather than bleak.
Ruth Hurd | BLOG 