The Night Before

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Winter can be a tough opponent for many artists and I am one who sees winter as both a challenge and an opponent. I most often enjoy painting color and passion often in combination if I am inspired by something. Winter is not so much color as it is illusion and shadow, at least in the way I see it and would prefer to render it. I spent some time.. a couple years in fact thinking about painting winter before I actually took action and started working. For myself I am compelled to paint winter as a passion... in part because I find that those who enjoy it most are passionate about it. Skiers, hikers, and get away winter vacationers as well as hard core "all four season" people.. are lovers of winter. Personally, I enjoy winter most when there is snow, and just as I love a good summer storm, I also love a good winter tempest as well. So most of my work of winter is, and I imagine most often always will be, infused with as much passion as I can find to express in it...

This particular work was inspired by the first true storm of winter when the leaves of autumn are still rustling about the ground. It's a storm that in its first hours combines a beautiful blend of swirling wind rushes and blinding white gusts, chasing fallen leaves off the ground, creating an autumn winter mix before one's eyes. It's a storm that ushers out the autumn and proclaims the coming of a new season with a beauty and passion all its own... one that is crisp and fresh, cold and white.

I have depicted this ushering storm as one of night. For me, that is when winter storms are their most beautiful. The night in upper New England is quiet and the skies are bright and while there are many incredible places to view the passion of a winter storm, this is one of my favorites... at the edge of a forest.