Winter Cabin Retreat

This is the old cabin where we spent the last 3 nights, celebrating 26 years of togetherness.  There was more snow in the mountains than we've seen in the last 6-8 years, and it was extremely beautiful and breathtaking.  I took many photos of the snow, the ice along the river's edges, animal tracks in otherwise untouched snow, and the mountains which changed every moment.

I've always loved the tracks of animals over untouched snow - just one of many little wonders we encountered on our snowshoe treks into the winterwoods.  The snow was blindingly white, but my camera showed this photo as blue, and I like it that way.

Last night we watched one of the most beautiful sunsets in recent memory, with the sky turning redder and redder before fading into that deep indigo blue just before darkness sets in.

I painted and painted for hours over these 3 days, trying to capture the mountains with snow on them, the sunset, the bare trees and the sense of winter in general.  I probably painted 15 pictures over the 3 days, most of them studies of winter.  The 3 below are my favorites from this weekend.

This painting is actually a combination of two paintings, neither one of which worked well on their own, but I liked the effect of combining them this way.

Comments

[Fran]

Hey, Paula, put up your story about the Huffy bicycle, would you? Do you have art to go with that?

[Fran]

Oh boy, you're back. These are wonderful photos and I also like your art. Sometimes it is hard to put our feelings into words, but photos and art have a way of saying what we can't. I'm glad you had such a wonderful time.

[Pattie]

Welcome back, girl! That cabin photo is gorgeous! It would make a great Christmas card picture for 2005.

[Kay]

Paula, the photos of the weekend are gorgeous and so are your watercolors!

[John]

Welcome back, Paula. I loved the photos and I loved the paintings. It looks like it was absolutely beautiful up there.