Painting the Seasons

There is a kind of landscape art intended to evoke a particular time, or setting. In the 20th century, illustrators were often commissioned to produce an image for a holiday--Christmas, in particular. The idea of seasonal art is certainly not new.

Sometimes, with winter settling onto the upper Midwest like a shroud, it's therapeutic to study images of other seasons and other climates. These are some images from other times of the year.

"Down on the Cowpasture River" watercolor, 2017

This is an 8x10 casein painting done on the bank of the lazy-flowing Cowpasture River, in western Virginia. We spent a week there in the summer of 2017, watching the water flow like liquid crystal over a pebbled bottom. The steep cliff of the far bank reflected in the slow water while I drew an old, bent sycamore and its companion shading the near bank. The faint gurgle of water and the sigh of a breeze above me echo faintly in this memory.

"Wild Phlox, Spring," watercolor, 2018

This is a 5x9 watercolor sketch done in late spring, 2018. Outside my studio window flows Druid Hill Creek, a spring-fed watercourse that runs free all year long. Last May I sketched the opposite bank dotted with the white flecks of wild phlox among the suddenly dense grasses and undergrowth beneath an old, gnarled mulberry. Nearest were groups of wild iris blossoms suspended over the spears of foliage along the creek bank. An artist doesn't have to go far to find subject matter.

"Fall Visitor," casein, 2016

The final painting for this post is a 9x12 casein landscape from 2016. This was early autumn and the foliage had begun to change. The afternoon light slanting into the upsloping woods across Druid Hill Creek seemed to set them aflame, but the nearer mulberry and lindens were still a dark, stubborn green. We often see deer as they travel along the water, keeping to cover but exposing themselves when they must. Fall is the season when we see them most often.

Given the current depth of winter, looking at other seasons is a better mood enhancer than pharmacology.