I spend much of my days researching into and writing about Winter. I’ll be writing about Winter as the seasons shift, and the days become longer and warmer, and then, as we move into the colder months again. I’m already anticipating the diary I’ll keep from November, by which time I’ll hopefully be in Norway. I need our cold season with me always, in some way or another, if I’m to feel happy. That’s just the way it is, and the way it’s been for a long time. Though if you’ve been reading my posts for a while, you’ll know that well enough already.
People in my household are counting down the hours to Spring. They’re fed up of the wet and gloom. Winter hasn’t show up properly as yet. Mar the few frosty-ish days we’ve had, it’s been raining pretty much constantly since October. I’m clinging to the hope we’ll get at least a half decent covering of snow before February is over.
Today I’d love to share some Winter art – some pieces here are favourites, of which I have in postcard format on my wall – and some are pieces I’ve seen for the first time this Winter. I hope that wherever you are, they make you feel suitably chilled. I hope you enjoy the words too, Sylvia’s Plath’s words on how much a snowfall can mean to a person really resonated with me.
Winter Art & Words
“Is it snowing where you are? All the world that I see from my tower is draped in white and the flakes are coming down as big as pop-corns. It’s late afternoon – the sun is just setting (a cold yellow colour) behind some colder violet hills, and I am up in my window seat using the last light to write to you.”
Jean Webster
“Winter is haunting, but it’s also healing.”
Adam Gopnik
“’Come in.’ Two short words, heavy with meaning. Step out of the big, bad, wet world and into my home. You’ll be safe here, toasty and well fed. ‘Come in.’ They are two of the loveliest words to sat and hear.”
Nigel Slater
“To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold.”
Aristotle
“There is a brooding stillness in the air before a heavy snowfall begins.”
Nancy Campbell
“There’s just something beautiful about walking on snow that nobody else has walked on. It makes you believe you’re special.”
Carol Rifka Bunt
Melancholy were the sounds on a winter’s night.
Virginia Woolf
“Well, I know now. I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person.”
Sylvia Plath
Celebrating the strange and the shadowy, the damned and unseen 
I live just south of the Adirondacks in New York and was really depressed about the mostly rainy weather persisting to the end of 2020. Things turned around in January and we’ve had a fair amount of snow – temperatures are staying low as well which is great! Nothing worse than a beautiful snowfall only to see warm days melt it all away. I am enraptured by that last painting by Yuli Klever, the magical reddish tints on the snow. The style is very similar to the painting on the cover of Rimmersgard’s A Venturer’s Mind, but I can’t confirm that is also Klever’s. The Schroeter painting really takes you into the scene, you can feel and breathe the cold, fresh air and imagine the crunch of your steps on the snow. Is that a fox up ahead? Welcoming silence all around.
It’s wonderful that you’ve had some snow! And I’m glad about the temperature too. I have quite the obsession with the Schroeter painting. Like you said, it really take you there. The painting by Klever…I get lost in it. I just looked up the cover for A Venturer’s Mind – my goodness, it’s gorgeous. I’ve just had a search to see if I could find out the artist…but I’m unable to find any name as yet… Also, thank you for introducing me to a new band, I’m looking forward to checking them out. I’ve been feeling a bit forlorn because the music I’ve been finding recently hasn’t been doing much for me. x
Did a little more searching…look up Snow Scene in the Black Forest, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm (1815-77). Always wondered, is the Black Forest as interesting and mysterious as it sounds? Maybe I’ll find out. Hope you like Rimmersgard. B
Thank you so much!! I think I MUST get a print of it! 😀 I would love to think that it is as interesting and mysterious. 🙂 x
This is a beautiful, beautiful selection of quotes and images. I think I now have a number of new favourite pieces of artwork. 🙂 The ways the snow and the trees are depicted… The moonlight and the sunsets are incredible – I think I’m most taken with the light in the Choultse and Newton paintings, though Lord knows it’s difficult to choose…
I feel guilty confessing to the fact that there was a bit of snow where I am last month, on a couple of occasions. It was wonderful to see it falling, though it didn’t really settle. Wish I could send some your way! Glad to read in your other post that you’ve at least had some hail. 🙂
It’s brought me so, so, so much happiness that you enjoyed the post and even have some new favourite pieces of artwork! 😀 It really is difficult to choose a favourite, isn’t it. We have had some snow today, and I’m so grateful for it. x