Speaking of Art Blog

Wings and Light, pastel, 14x11", AVAILABLE

I just finished painting this summer sunset over Lake Michigan scene as a demo for my Zoom pastel class.  The theme for the four lessons was painting clouds and this was the perfect subject.  I was able to cover a lot of territory with my students.  It was fun.

It doesn’t matter that it’s winter right now because I love painting summer lake scenes all year round.  Which brings me to my main point for this blog post.  I’ll admit it, I’m not a fan of winter.  It’s my least favorite season.  Being cold or even slightly chilly is just not my thing.  Winter sports?  No thank you.  I do love a tasty bowl of hot soup, but I can enjoy that all year round.  As a result, I’m not a big fan of painting winter scenes.  But I do like the challenge of tackling a subject that is new for me, so I’ve actually rendered a number of winter themed paintings in order to build up my knowledge base for painting snow and nature in winter.  But here’s the weird thing: I only feel like painting winter scenes in winter, no other time of year.  I’m thinking it’s because once winter is done, I don’t want to have to think about it until the next winter.  My thinking is usually, “Whew, that’s over.  Thank goodness it’s warming up outside.  I don’t want to see another sweater until late next fall.”  So why would I want to paint snow, that cold stuff that makes driving anywhere treacherous, in July?  No thank you.

So imagine my surprise when I counted up how many winter scenes I’ve rendered in the past 17 years, and I found a whopping 13 winter paintings!  That’s way more than I thought I’d find.  But when I checked on the time of year each one was painted, that info was more predictable.  I painted them all between December and early March.  No surprise there.  I’m just very glad that my customers love my winter paintings all year round because most of my selling opportunities come in the summertime.  Even on a hot summer day at an art fair in August I’ll still have the inevitable visitor to my booth, asking if I have any winter paintings to sell.  I usually remember to have one handy.  I don’t know, maybe it makes them feel cooler to gaze at it in summer.  Or maybe they just like winter a whole lot more than me.  Whatever their reason, I’ll keep working on a winter painting now and then between December and March while I’m still wearing sweaters.

Here are the 5 winter pastel paintings I've created that I haven't sold yet.  If you are interested in one of them, please contact me and I’ll give you a price.  And I’ll probably assume that you like winter way more than me, which is fine.  We are all entitled to having a favorite season.  Mine doesn’t happen to involve snow or cold.  Mine has more to do with beach towels and sunsets over Lake Michigan and bare feet in the sand.