January 4th, 2020

The weather has been positively schizophrenic. Last weekend the temperature was close to 70 degrees – warm enough to eat outside. Right now, as I type this, it is a chilly 23 degrees (-5 C) and snowing.
January 4th was cold and wet, wet, wet. It rained all day; a fine mist of moisture, more like winter in Scotland – Mark would uncharitably say summer! The lake remained frozen but had strange, inexplicable patterns of light and dark.

MG painting, January 4th, 2019 - PHOTO: Mark Powell
MG painting, January 4th, 2019 – PHOTO: Mark Powell

I deployed the umbrella Mark had given me at Christmas, which is actually intended to protect my sun-hating skin from burning, to stay dry.  (I apparently lost my neck in the process..!)

I mainly worked in oil on paper but did the last painting (#4) on canvas. By that point the mist was blurring everything and the picture feels vague and unresolved. I have looked at it every weekend since. I am not sure it will survive.

Upton Lake - rain, frozen, January 4th, 2020
Upton Lake – rain, frozen, (1 of 4) January 4th, 2020
Upton Lake - rain, lake partially frozen, January 4th, 2020
Upton Lake – rain, frozen, (2 of 4) January 4th, 2020
Upton Lake - rain, lake partially frozen, January 4th, 2020
Upton Lake – rain, frozen, (3 of 4) January 4th, 2020
Upton Lake - rain, frozen, January 4th, 2020
Upton Lake – rain, frozen, (4 of 4) January 4th, 2020

Mark’s photos, as always, tell the real story, and I confess to frequently thinking, “Now that’s what I should have painted!”

Upton Lake, frozen, rain, January 4th, 2019 - PHOTO: Mark Powell
Upton Lake, frozen, rain, January 4th, 2019 – PHOTO: Mark Powell

11 Comments

  1. All four paintings are beautiful and although you say #4 is unresolved, I like it as it is – slightly mysterious with hints of what’s hidden by the mist.

  2. These are marvelous! You keep getting better (if such a thing were possible). And so does your subject, who seems very content to be observed….

  3. Number 2 is my favourite, but number 4 makes me want to put on my fenrunners!
    A large surface of frozen water, you captured it very well.
    Makes me realise how much we miss skating here in the Netherlands!
    Thank you Mike!

Please let me know what you think!