Wishing for Winter?

When the weather becomes oppressive--hot, humid days in summer or conversely dim and frigid winter afternoons--it can occasionally be helpful to remember the opposite season. Most of July has been unusually hot for Des Moines, with brutal, steamy humidity levels that can

"City Snow," oil on canvas, 20x26

fog your sunglasses. Walking outside in July was like walking into a wall. The heat kept a lot of people indoors, and it certainly made me long for the crisp days of fall and the briskness of early winter. So I began to think about that kind of weather as I looked through old image files. .

"Winter, Union Square," oil on panel, 9x12

Sorting images, I ran across a couple of streetscapes of winter. While I'm not a fan of driving snow, looking at "Winter, Union Square" was a welcome breath of cold air during the summer inferno. The painting sold a number of years ago, but the impact remains, for me.

The other, "City Snow," is in my studio collection and has been rarely shown. This is a snowy sidewalk in winter, the sun breaking through after the storm. This one makes me think of those brief, wet snows that melt and refreeze into icy sidewalks and streets. Hard to image with the daily temperature over ninety, but in our part of the world, snow is certain to come, but thinking of colder weather is mental air conditioning.