January 25th, 2014
Cox Reservation Essex Greenbelt, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in

I’m pretty sure I did roughly this exact same view around this same time last year. The reason is not that I am captivated by the scene particularly, so much as that there is a nice wooden bench there, out of the wind. Sitting on a wooden bench is much warmer than standing on ice or a freezing rock for hours at a time. It was cold and there were a lot of branches and there was a lot of wind. If the term “tone poem” weren’t so repugnant, I might suggest this is more in the nature of one of those than an attempt to get all the linear details exactly right. I riffed on the colors and lines, and while I could still walk I called it a day. I’ve changed a little bit since (this photo was taken before last revision) but on the whole, this is what it is.