A Snow Day

We recently received a real dose of winter here in Western Kentucky. After watching the Northeastern part of the US getting hammered, I wondered if we would ever get any snow. Well, we did. About 10 inches worth and extremely cold temps. in the single digits and teens.

Of course, this meant the kids have been out of school and my wife has been home from work, so this freed me up to be able to go out and paint.

The first place I went to was Joe Ford Nature Center. I walked through the trails there, but was having a hard time finding a subject that interested me. The light was very flat and overcast at the time, and that really deadened the scene in the woods.

I came out of a trail, near the corner of a picked corn field, and decided the trees there would give me something to work with, as well as the atmospherics of the receding plane of the field and distant tree line.

Set up and ready to paint. 6"x8" oil primed panel

After about an 45 minutes. Time to pack it up and move on.

From there I drove around trying to find an idea, downtown, out of town, but trying to find a spot was tough. I saw a clear parking lot at a local Dairy Queen, which is right along side a walking/bicycle trail, so I choose there to take a chance on finding something. Grabbed my gear and started walking toward where I knew there was a pond. Thinking that would provide some interesting spots. Along the way, where the trail passes under a major street, there is also a small creek and I was getting interested in it. Sure enough, the spot revealed itself.

By this time, the afternoon light had arrived with some clearing of the sky. I choose to use the shade of the bridge to paint by and set to work. I really loved this little scene and was in a hurry to capture it, as the sun was sinking and the shadows about to swallow up area of interest...the little rocky point, water and reflections. As well as the cast shadows of the trees from the opposite bank that swooped up the other side of the creek.

The whole time I stood there painting, the smells from the burgers being grilled at the Dairy Queen kept drifting my way. It was hard not to slobber on my painting. So, in an ode to the moment, the title to this piece was born.

Once I arrived home, I did a little more work on them in the studio.

The first I titled, "Cornered By The Snow"

6"x8" oil on panel

The last I titled, "I Can Smell The Burgers From Here"

6"x8" oil on panel