WINTER ART

 Often I feel like I live in the minority.....with the way I think about things, feel about things and my responses thereto.  

I love winter, and I don't move away from it.  Rather, I embrace all aspects of the season....from the phenomenon of white flakes falling to the ground, to the snowmen we built, to the snow tunnels of childhood, the holidays, warm and sustaining foods, and most of all, the ambiance of a lit fireplace.  Oh, I know, travel can be a bugger in winter.  In bad weather, we stay put.....retirement affords us the freedom to choose ourselves what to do and what not to do.  To us, retirement is the concept of not having a boss.

With that said, I've decided to focus my blogging from now until the end of the year on how famous artists have presented winter in their works.  We'll venture back to different periods of history, artists and approaches.  As of this moment, I've not searched for today's painting.  Writing my daily posts requires time, and it's my intention to use up hours of my day to expand my mind's perspective.  

SNOW SCENE AT ARGENTEUIL (suburb of Paris) Claude Monet 

The winter of 1874-5 was exceptionally snowy in France, which inspired Claude Monet to paint 18 views of Argenteuil covered in snow.  The painting we'll focus on today is the scene on the boulevard Saint-Denis where he was living.  It shows the boulevard running toward the River Seine, looking away from the railway station.....

In this scene, Monet has devoted large parts of the canvas to blue and grey tones, with smaller strokes of green, yellow, red and darker blues to break up those large parts.  He painted ruts in the snow, leading toward the vanishing point in the center.  This gives a sense of perspective and depth.  Those of us who grew up in the 1950s and 60s remember heavy snowfalls and getting stuck with our cars.  We've studied enough to recognize other interesting elements in the painting, like the people who are out walking and stopping to visit.  The trees on both sides balance the composition.  This painting is considered a classic example of Impressionism......Monet captured the fleeting quality of light and atmosphere in a natural scene as he saw it at the moment.

Why do I love snow and wintertime?  Because I see Nature's unfathomable ability to transform the earth from dark and dreary into a blanket of white.  To me, it's like the old-fashioned magic slate.  Beyond that, the Sun creates sparkle and glitter that quiets a place to a serene sense of wonder and tranquility.  Delicate ice crystals reflect light in a way that can't help but excite our curiosity and need to see beautiful things in this life.  To me, Nature is a therapist, available to us at zero monetary expense.  Winter is the time of year when freezing temperatures pull us indoors with one another.  The only season that affords us "coziness" is winter.  Summer does the opposite.  Nothing remains closer to my soul than the memory of our walks in the woods in the winter, where we trudged through a fresh snowfall to our cabin.  Parkas and snow boots, walking sticks and mittens.  

I've always been drawn to the fluffy feel of fresh snow, kicking snow with my boots as I was the first to make tracks in it.  For me to move away from winter just couldn't happen.  For the two of us, retirement is wonderful because we can stay cozy and safe, while watching the flakes fall, and with heavy winds, build drifts that block major highways and close airports.  It's kinda like the Almighty puts out His hands and puts a stop to human busy-ness.  

There are millions of shoppers packing the stores today, Black Friday.  To me, consumerism separates people from their senses.  And, there are equal arguments in favor of shopping and spending and being stirred into the Black Friday stew.  Are there actually sales?  Or, does this one day magnify the over-pricing and gouging that has become the norm?  The only money saved is the money that isn't spent.  

Tomorrow we'll see how another artist painted winter.