'Flurries 1/30' -oil on linen panel - 9x12 © Marc R. Hanson '11
With about an hour to kill before a meeting in the afternoon, I drove down to Scandia, MN and parked on the widest spot along the road I could find and feels safe in. There wasn't much out in front of me, but we had constant light flurries falling and that was of interest in how it was muting the color and softening the edges of the forms. That's what I put down before packing up and heading off to the meeting.
'Snow Storm 1/31' - pastel on paper - 8x10 © Marc R. Hanson '11
Earlier today I ran into a friend and artist, Tom Maakestad in Marine on St Croix, MN, and went up to his studio to visit. He pulled out some pastels he's doing as studies for paintings, when he goes cross country skiing. They were gorgeous life studies and it inspired me to try it out also. However, we're having a snow storm so instead of throwing the pastels in a backpack, I threw them into the car and went out to Little Lake, primarily because there is a parking lot there at the boat launch where I thought I'd be safe from slipping and sliding cars and snowplows. It was interesting to work on sketch pad paper and I am going to do more of this. I'm so used to using the sanded pastel papers and really enjoyed the smooth application that this paper gave me.
I had a run in with a car today on the icy roads. I was behind a black sedan that suddenly went into a 540º spin right in front of me. I was barely able to stop and avoid him. Managing to do that, he was now in the opposite lane facing the other direction. Thank goodness there was no oncoming traffic or it would have been a very nasty situation. As it was, he was stunned but okay and got the car going and drove off.
Happy to be home. :)
9 comments:
huge fan of that pastel man! love the soft and feel that it was today
These are two very beautiful paintings. Excellent.
Your "hour" puts my "days" to shame.
well I'd never thought one could actually produce little masterpieces sitting in a car...the second one is amazingly beautiful.
These are really cool..
Wonderful work... So glad you and the other people are safe!
I find these very appealing, even more so than springtime paintings. What is it about the subtlety of snowscapes that is so engaging??? (beyond, of course, the excellence of their execution...)
Thanks for all of the comments everyone! I made it out again yesterday, almost a week later than when these were painted, and feel a little better, less rusty that is. Painting is like any skill, practice makes you more comfortable. Painting outside is one of those activities were the more frequently you're doing it, the more comfortable things are and the smoother they go. This week was smoother. :)
Wonderful!!
And glad you are safe.
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