Winter’s Fire

For several days, the new canvas sat upon my easel – barren. Yet every night, I would awaken with the same vivid image burning deeply into my consciousness. I had no choice but to paint what awakened me multiple times each night. This painting would not be in my usual style.

I began with washes of bright, vivid color applied in multiple layers until a rich vibrant background was achieved. With extremely thick acrylic paint and multiple palette knives, I began to add layer upon layer of pure hues and tints. Layer upon layer created more depth of color as several layers of a warm, richly mixed black created shadows in my abstract tree line. The reflections in the water required using a dry, stiff brush, pulling rigid lines of color and shadows together into the still body of water below.

With a horizon purposefully created in the middle of the canvas, I painted the atmospheric conditions of a cold, icy winter on the left and an intensely burning fire on the right, all balanced by the utter calmness in the water below. Tiny specs of white paint applied with a palette knife begin as snowflakes only to develop into flakes of ash as they float across the top of the canvas.

Beginning with a cold green hue on the left, I relied upon the hues of the rainbow to move delicately across the canvas, from winter’s icy cold to the intense heat of the fire burning behind the subtle bend of trees on the right. Further enhancing the atmospheric conditions, the color transition allows the viewer time to absorb the rapid changes in temperature simultaneously. The serenity of the water below the horizon as juxtaposed to the chaos above, allows one’s eyes to reflect upon the scene, to absorb the intensity, to breathe, before being drawn back into the chaotic scene of a winter’s fire.

Did I create this painting with a particular thought behind it? No.

Did I create it to make a statement? No, I did not.

I created this painting because it was something that I simply had to do; it’s difficult to explain. The painting truly haunted me – awakening me in the middle of the night, popping into my conscious thoughts when I least expected it – until the final layer of paint was applied with a palette knife.

Only after completion could I sleep uninterrupted.

I find myself very perplexed as to the meaning behind this painting when asked. Some people see a kind of Christmasy winter scene or a rainbow forest or the burning desire for equality and some people look for different meaning, the decline of morality. Having this image come to me in my dreams, I cannot understand the significance of this painting. However, I can state that what each individual sees and determines this painting to mean belongs to each individual.

A Certificate of Authenticity is included. Painting is signed, titled and dated on the back of the canvas. Acrylics, gallery wrapped 12 oz cotton duck canvas, gloss varnished and measures 39-1/2″ x 39-1/2″ x 1-1/4″. All sides of painting are painted black; frame not required.

Screen image is representative of the original painting; color may differ slightly from screen to original artwork.