“Snow and Ice”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

With no back up plan, I was taking my chances driving all the way out to Quansoo Beach hoping to find a view to paint. It was beautiful getting there with the fields along the way covered with recently fallen snow. At the first field I parked and took a photo of the shadows across the old farm road which bisected it. Oh, it was wicked cold out there and I knew any painting done would be from inside my van. This became crystal clear when I saw my car keys locked in the van and I had to find my hide-a-key under the car with cold, bare hands. Coming near the end of the dirt road I realized that no one had driven this far out since the snow storm two days ago. I rounded the last corner out of the scrub oak and shrubbery into the clear, grassy area next to the creek behind the dunes. What usually is a large expanse of parking by the bridge was being crowded out by the high pond and creek water level covered with a few inches of ice. It was a soft, brackish ice and I dared not cross it even just to get on the bridge. But the light was magic, reflecting evening sun off the new wood of the repaired rails and deck of the bridge. The dark, low lying snow clouds added a rich element to the lightness of snow on sand and tawny, winter’s beach grass…