Midwinter Blues (and Greens) Part 2

 It seems whenever I have a few minutes to paint,

I tend to paint evergreens.  These pages from my sketchbook are just that, moments when I only had 15 minutes to paint and decided to try something different. and what better subject to practice on than trees. Besides, evergreens teach us a good lesson: Never give up!  No matter how old, or tired or broken, tattered or torn, they always look towards heaven.  They are always pointing upward, as though they are trying to reach for the stars.

I had several blank pages at the end of a well-used watercolor journal. One of them, I spattered with a toothbrush full of masking fluid. The other two, I stamped with white acrylic snowflakes. 

The one to the left, with the splattered masking fluid is the more spontaneous of the three.  Trees painted quickly, passionately, then, wetting the background around the still-wet trees and dropping in all the colors used to make the greens and cleaning my brush in the foreground snow.  I love this little painting.  It's as exuberant as I felt when I painted it! 



This second one, had a bit more acrylic snowflake than I had wanted but I still like it.  I sprinkled it with a mix of kosher and fine sea salt to get the blooms in the sky.  I like the way I don't know what I've got until I get it.  It's great fun to see what will happen.  White acrylic or mask doesn't show up very well on white paper, so it's always a surprise when color is applied.  And the same with salt.  Kosher salt leaves big blossoms and sea salt makes tiny white sparkles, depending upon how wet the paint is when it's sprinkled.  It's all a crap-shoot!  What you see is not always what you get! 

This third one, a little more studied than the others, has hardly any snowflakes at all, and no salt.  I was just sort of cleaning the stamp on this page, so not much paint transferred, but there's still a little, just a whisper of a large snowflake in the upper right sky. It's simple, it came together quickly and easily. No effort. It has it's faults, but the little trees reach toward heaven like all evergreens.

When I am looking through magazines and books for inspiration I'm always drawn to the scenes with grand expanses of white snow, clear blue skies and deep, dark pines.  To me they embody the clean, purity of winter more-so than anything else. 

Winter is a time of wonder, time for the Earth and all her creatures to rest, to hibernate, to snuggle down, dream, ponder, renew.  There is nothing more cleansing to the soul than breathing the clean, frost-laden air of a winter's day. 

I hear folks say they don't like winter.  I used to be one of them. No more.  I cherish these days to contemplate, to imagine, to plan, to revive, to watch, to appreciate the difference. Spring, Summer and Fall run together seamlessly. I hardly notice when one changes to the other, but Winter, oh, Winter charges in and settles in and waits, and then, one day, just as suddenly, leaves. And we are refurbished. And we begin again. But the evergreens, the pines, the firs and cedars, the hemlocks and hollies, they remain, unchanged, eternal, the Sentinels of the Forest, quietly, with great dignity, bringing their message.

Carole