12" x 16"
oil on panel
After making this painting I discovered a poem about winter that I like very much. It is called
Twenty Below by Paul Engle. It talks about the hardness of winter wind, loneliness, and the way "cabin fever" can bring about intimacy. It has been very cold and snowy here in Western New York, but my painting doesn't focus on the same things as Engle's poem. Sky and Snow is lyrical despite its lack of Matisse-like arabesques. The blue and the white shimmer radiantly; the air feels crisp. The line of snow meeting sky softly undulates, human, not stark. The space is inviting for all its apparent emptiness, calm and open, no trace of a cabin. It is a friendly place, not unlike an illustration from one of my favorite picture books, Caldecott winner A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. His book is described on his website as "sparkling with atmosphere." I remember being enchanted by it as a child, and again as an adult reading to my son. I think my painting has some of that sense of wonder, but the narrative is removed and it is very still.
Twenty Below by Paul Engle. It talks about the hardness of winter wind, loneliness, and the way "cabin fever" can bring about intimacy. It has been very cold and snowy here in Western New York, but my painting doesn't focus on the same things as Engle's poem. Sky and Snow is lyrical despite its lack of Matisse-like arabesques. The blue and the white shimmer radiantly; the air feels crisp. The line of snow meeting sky softly undulates, human, not stark. The space is inviting for all its apparent emptiness, calm and open, no trace of a cabin. It is a friendly place, not unlike an illustration from one of my favorite picture books, Caldecott winner A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. His book is described on his website as "sparkling with atmosphere." I remember being enchanted by it as a child, and again as an adult reading to my son. I think my painting has some of that sense of wonder, but the narrative is removed and it is very still.
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