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Rock, Water, and Ice

Watercolor - 25x17

I love a good challenge.  Mother Winter must know that because she has been testing my metal all month.  In her tests I have experienced doubt (what did I get myself into...?  Will I be up to the challenge?..), amazement (at the opportunities that opened in my path and the kind people whom I met along the way), and great pleasure.  It is not news to anyone that winter has been a cold and snowy challenge for all of us.  As an artist, January and February have been a delight to me.  Mother Winter and I danced together.

It started with my painting: Rock, Water, and Ice.  As the image developed, I had in mind the winter rock formations  on Pemaquid Point in Maine.  Lying below the beautiful Pemaquid Lighthouse, the rocks almost dance their way to the ocean.  Ice, a solid mass,  was caught between the rocks.  The  distant ocean waters moved slowly, rose and fell gently in response to the weight of the cold.  The dance of the rocks became the point of movement in this painting.  

Winter Fir

Watercolor - 20x28

Early February brought outrageous amounts of snow followed by an occasional clear, shimmering day.  Winter Fir grew out of the pure joy of sun on snow.

These were studio precursors to the challenge I embraced in late February.  With three other Artists, the plan was to ski into cabins on Katahdin Lake for four days of plain air painting.  In the end, the destination plan had to change but not the painting adventure.  We spent three nights at  Twin Pine Camps, New England Outdoor Center, and enjoyed some of the best, most challenging plain air painting I have ever experienced....

including a wind free, crystal-sun day on Millinocket Lake...

Katahdin Winter Sun

Oil on Panel - 9x12

a day in which a snow storm obliterated the mountain but brought the cold, black water of Abol Stream into focus...

Abol Stream

Oil on Canvas - 12x16

a day of white-out conditions and below 0 temperatures outside which lead to an invitation from the current owners of Camp Rhodora (built by Frederic Church in 1878 as his summer Camp) to paint inside the camp...

In the Tradition

Oil on Canvas - 12x16

and finally a day in which we rose early to capture the first light on Mt Katahdin.  I have to say that my plan to paint the mountain glow as the sun first hit its peak was quickly modified when the cold got to my hands and paint tubes.  Six below was just too cold for me to tarry outside.

First Light

Oil on Panel - 8x10

My dance with Mother Winter has been a delight.  The painting opportunities have energized me, have brought me into community with wonderful people, and have led me to places that nourish the Spirit.  A friend recently gave me a copy of May Sartan's book:  At Seventy.  It is her journal writings during the year she was 70.  I read one entry per day.  Today's entry quoted Virginia Wolf:  "This insatiable desire to write something before I die, this ravaging sense of the shortness and feverishness of life, make me cling, like a limpet to a rock, to my one anchor."  She speaks my mind as an artist.  My anchor is the challenge and the delight of painting that which touches my Spirit.