Snow Studies

10 x 7" plein air oil on linen/birch.

 January 18

In the woods as afternoon turned to evening. Snow clung to the moss-covered bark of an old oak tree on the hillside.

8 x 16" plein air oil on linen/birch.

January 19

Winona, Minnesota, on the campus of Saint Mary's University. I set up, troll-like, under a footbridge to paint the still water of the creek that cuts through the woods.

Two 5 x 7" plein air oil paintings on linen/birch. sold

January 21

I took myself for a Sunday drive after church through a landscape of filtered sunlight, fog, and frost. By the time I reached this spot in the marsh the sun was disappearing behind incoming clouds and the fog had dissipated. It was a beautiful, quiet spot to observe the textures and colors of the bluffs and lowlands on a winter afternoon. It was a wide view, and the little panels I had along to paint on just didn't seem to cut it, so I painted two of them together.

9 x 12" plein air oil on linen/birch.

January 25

Footprints and drifts along the field-road. Grays and blues in sky and snow, soft shadows and the sun setting behind a cloud bank to the west.

7 x 10" plein air oil on linen/birch.

January 26

A thaw turned steep hillsides into waterfalls and all the ditches and gullies into streams of melted snow, stained by fallen leaves. The dogs, chasing tracks and trails up and down hill, occasionally remembered my existence and returned to me to be told what good dogs they were before running off again.

Shortly after I painted the reflections, water broke through the ice and snow farther up the hill and the little stream widened and foamed as it rushed on down towards the valley.