Winter Sunrise - Day 3 of 30 in 30

6"x8" oil on linen mounted on archival panel

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  Yesterday morning, as soon as I opened the blinds, I knew that there was my painting.  There's finally construction going on across the street and they are almost finished with this house. The early morning winter sun seems to rise barely above the horizon, and hits the front of this house square on. The sky was still a deep blue with swirling clouds, but that sun illuminated the tree tops like golden life! 

Winter Thaw, Barn Island

6"x8" oil on linen mounted on archival panel

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Wow, this morning was a winter heat wave, 43 degrees F! Which makes for a great day of painting outside. The sun was trying to burn off the haze, but never did quite succeed. Much of our previous snowfall has melted. Only stubborn little patches of ice persist, though most have yielded to mud. Tide was going out, which I wasn't aware of until I heard some ice pulling against some crackly reeds along the edge of the water.  Most of the grasses have faded to a pale golden wheat color at this point in the winter, though I did see a few tufts of faded green emerging from some snowy clumps.  As I was setting up to paint today, a big egret came in for a landing behind me.  He became too busy stalking his prey to worry about me though. Life in the marsh goes on.  

Winter Wonder of Woods

11"x14" oil on linen mounted on archival panel

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So, here's the skinny on my painting efforts this winter....me, "the girl from FL who does not DO snow is determined to learn to like it, paint it, have fun in it, and live with it.  If all else fails, I can get away for short bits during the winter to go visit my mom in FL!  In fact, I'm making a 'paint & tour' list of every friend that I could possibly stay with down there if we really get an unbearable blizzard or I get frost-bite....or worse (i.e. like lock myself out of the house in the snow, in my jammies, while getting the newspaper). Then I cry 'uncle'! 

This past Sunday morning we wake up to this - a winter wonderland! The storm is over and the sun is out, catching wonderful light tracery on heavy trunks and fine branches.  If I didn't have 'coffee-hour duty' at church I would've climbed back into bed under the warm covers! BRR! But the roads are clear, and I want to greet & chat with my fellow parishioners....so out to the driveway I go to shovel. Hubby follows shortly with the snow-blower, which was still buried in the basement under outdoor stuff that we had hauled in before the hurricane (just a few months back?). 

I figure there must be a special technique of using snow-blowers that involves a great deal of physics (man I hated that class in high school AND college!). It involves understanding wind-direction and flying weight of heavy wet crap- which I haven't mastered yet, as I end up wearing more snow than I clear!   So I inevitably leave the snow-blower to hubby!  

It's tough being a New Englander! But I'm working on getting the hang of it!