On Freshly Plowed Snow

On Freshly Plowed Snow

A Clementine sunning out on freshly plowed snow alongside my driveway on Fort Ridge in Shapleigh, Maine painted December 5, 2025, 12" x 9" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors selected for light fastness and permanence, with wax resist, on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$400

Clementine Atop an Edge

Clementine Atop an Edge

Clementine (Citrus × clementina) atop a ridge of plowed snow along the road by my driveway on Dec. 5, 2024, painted Dec. 22, 2025, 12" x 9" ( w x h), painted using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, wax resist and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$400

Ornamental Clementine Hanging Out

Ornamental Clementine
Hanging Out

painted as a snow life in my yard on December 22, 2025, 10" x 8" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, wax resist and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough  100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.

$300

Clementine Edged on a Snow Day

Clementine Edged
on a Snow Day

Atop plowed snow beyond my driveway on December 5, 2025, painted on December 22, 2025  12" x 9" (w x h) using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.

$400

Precipice Balanced

Precipice Balanced

A Clementine atop the snow of a plowed snow peak beside a road, painted December 22, 2025, 12" x 9" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$400

Tree Branch Shadows... and Comments

 Tree Branch Shadows 
Floating on Snow Abstractly

painted December 21, 2025, 7" x 5" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$150

A Viewer's Curious Questions

Virginia Coury's amusing and insightful December 24, 2025 Facebook comments on my art posting of Tree Branch Shadows Floating on Snow Abstractly deserve a thoughtful response...

Re: I really love the simplicity of your paintings. It tickles my funny bone that when I think you couldn't possibly make a subject simpler and more pared down, you dare to take that range down a notch further.

Indeed, I often do series of studies, the first one the most detailed, and keep simplifying. Perhaps most people would look at the series and think the order I painted was simplified to detailed, but it's actually detailed to simplified. Though, for this one, Tree Branch Shadows Floating on Snow Abstractly, it was a one and done.

I note from my online museum searches that the great artists painting throughout the lives tend to simplify their art during their painting journey. I quite like and enjoy this Paul Cezanne, Study of Trees, painted two years before he completed his journey through life, pure simplicity with the road and trees. I saw it in person at Harvard's art museum, oil on canvas, 19" x 25" (w x h), circa 1904:

Study of Trees

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), French

Oil on canvas, 19" x 25" (w x h), circa 1904
Museum Notes edited:

Study of Trees, painted two years before he died, exemplifies Cezanne depicting depth on a flat canvas. This had been a focus of his for most of his career. Energetic diagonal brush strokes slice the space of the picture, producing the suggestion of movement in and out of depth, and dashed lines define the tree trunks on either side of a country winding road. The rough, unpainted areas of the canvas seem as animated as the daubs of paint flickering across the picture's surface, like leaves in shifting sunlight. At the time of its making, Study of Trees was at the vanguard of intellectualized, abstract painting.

I also posted a visual essay on Paul Cezanne's simplicity with watercolors that he painted later in life, Paul Cézanne Watercolors with a Light Touch on my website HERE.

Re: People say that we shouldn't scratch further than art itself and just appreciate it for its own sake. However, my first real exposure to art was through reading...

I study art online using most of the major museum's collections which are online. I look at the art and I read about the art. When I paint and note the colors or ideas in the art, I look online at how other artist have approached this. I often post essays of the other's art, like paintings also using orange and blue, or simply paintings also using red roofs on houses.

Re: Do you pare down everything in your surroundings and in life to their most intrinsic elements? I am somehow picturing a monastic existence - free of clutter. My husband would ask me "Why does that matter to you?" I suppose it's for the same reason I had to look up the origin of the word "codger" (an often mildly eccentric and usually elderly fellow).

Amusing comment, does my life reflect the simplicity of my art? My life is certainly organized, though my home full of watercolors lined up everywhere, scattered yet I can usually find anything anywhere. When my desk gets too messy and full of paintings and notes and frames piled up and surrounding my computer, I pare it down to it's simplest form. Thinking about that, perhaps it's the same method I simplify my art, from the complex to the simplest, a form where the mind can think and see clearly.

Portrait of Maddie...

Portrait of Maddie

on Boston's MBTA Green Line

on August 20, 2025, painted December 2, 2025, 7" x 5" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
NFS

Winter Dream Under Summer

Winter Dream Under Summer

painted December 9, 2025, 10" x 8" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
NFS

Impressionism Making an Impression

Impressionism
Making an Impression

At the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with Grandson Finn and his Girlfriend Maddie on August 20, 2025 painted December 1, 2025, 7" x 5" (w x h), using Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, all selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.

NFS