Before Winter

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

This is a local scene here in Vermont. It is walking distance from where I live. I amble through the back woods and climb to an old expanse of corn field belonging to the Brattleboro Retreat. It certainly doesn't feel like late December with such mild weather and soft earth beneath my feet. I cannot stop thinking about the fact that in a couple of days, after a winter storm of one sort or another: freezing rain or snow, it will all look so different.

Earlier this evening I started this little watercolor. I had been meaning to do a picture with an absence of buildings, and this sunny field caught my eye. All the raw earth colors of this time of year, which include the yellow ochers, raw siennas, and umbers, are exposed before they are covered with a deep blanket of snow or swaths of white and gray, creating a patchwork of ice and bare ground across the local landscape.

I appreciate the natural light at this time of year when the sun is low. It is a limited resource, yet it still makes the birds sing and highlights the open spaces.