This painting and poem are about a day spent painting during the winter a few years back. I painted in absolutely cold weather in watercolor with vodka put in the water to keep it from freezing. The painting was not fabulous but I learned a lot as I always do outdoors. I painted this oil painting as a demonstration and finished it the other day. I really tried to get the bleak cold misty feeling of flat light in winter.
Steel Gray Day
Cold, snow, sleet gray sky
Harsh winds pierce skin, brittle bones
Exposed skin crimson
Wood smoke beckons come in now
Winter artists need warm socks
Painting outside in cold late January has its’ good sides and its’ not so pleasant ones. The colors are sublime, rich wonderful greys, browns and greens with a wide range of values, the layers of the landscape are much more evident and distinct. I find the shapes to be more interesting without the predictable canopy of leaves. Late fall through early spring is my favorite time to paint landscapes plein-aire, although the not so pleasant aspect is the cold wind that tears right through my clothes no matter how many layers I am wearing. I start to paint and immediately begin to freeze starting with my feet and slowly the chill radiates all the way up to the top of my head. I have become an absolute baby about the cold and can’t imagine how I used to paint outdoors in Maine in January. Probably it was caused by insanity or my need to prove something about being the right kind of artist.
Sienna weeds trap snow
Frozen veils of winter mist
Softens all edges
Pat McSwain Wonderfully cold:) And your writing suits the atmosphere perfectly!
I was trying to make the writing feel cold.
You succeeded!