Winter is for Rest

Now that I'm done with finals, I am ready for a nice long winter rest. I'll be working on a lot of art over Christmas break, but it will be at my own pace, and I'll be working on things I want to work on. It's a very important difference.

I greatly enjoy winter, especially when it snows. Lately I've been looking at paintings of snow and noticing how the masters were able to convey so well the quality of winter light. I wish that where I live looked like this right now, seeing as it's December...

Vilhelm von Gerfelt, Winter Picture With Cabin at River,  18th - 19 century, Wikimedia Commons

But alas, it looks more like a late autumn day where I live, like in this painting, which captures the quality of autumn light so perfectly.

Alfred Sisley, Die Klienen Fleisen Im Frühling, 1880, Wikimedia Commons

Monet did an excellent job of capturing winter light in this painting. He didn't just paint pretty scenes of water lilies.

Claude Monet, Snow Scene At Argenteuil, 1875,  Wikimedia Commons

I also really like this winter scene by Caspar David Friedrich. It's a more gloomy scene, but very interesting. His style is almost modern realism, but he died in 1840, and this picture disappeared in Berlin in 1945... hmmm I wonder who was responsible for that.

Caspar David Friedrich, Monastery Burial-Ground Under Snow, 1818, Wikimedia Commons

On that gloomy note, I'm off to make supper and relish the fact that I don't have any homework to do.