Not-So-Chilly Scenes of Winter in Jessie Edwards Studio
Warmth and light through the dark and cold days of winter can found in recent works by artists in Jessie Edwards Studio.
“Old Bridge,” Gerard Blouin’s oil-on-canvas, is an idyllic scene of an old country road and wooden bridge leading through trees to a farm, after what could be a late autumn or early winter snowfall. Warm orange and brown tones in the foreground are dappled with white, suggesting that the snow is melting. In the background, snow covers the field around the red barn and outbuildings.
Kate Knapp’s oil-on-canvas “Snowy Day from My Studio Window” is a very different view of an old green railroad bridge, a red brick mill, and a water tower rising into a grey sky. In the foreground, the colors are carried through in a small green street sign, a red stop sign set against the grey bulwarks supporting the bridge. Veil-like snow drops steadily across the scene softening the edges of the bridge, the mill, and the concrete.
In contrast to the still and quiet of the two bridge scenes, Whitney Knapp Bowditch’s oil-on-paper “Snowy Nocturne,” is full of movement in the dark tracks that churn through the snow in the foreground. Yellow dabs and circles cast warm pools of light along a path leading into a background of deep blues and black. This chiaroscuro effect of light and dark heightens the
feeling of warmth and light being brought into the cold and dark.
“Stormy Seas,” Tom Martinelli’s oil-on-canvas, uses yellow to bring depth and dimension to the surface of a storm-tossed sea. The faintest trace of yellow in the cloudy sky becomes dark ochre streaks on the churning waves and warms the cold tones of foaming water.
Marilyn Bogdanffy’s watercolor “Pink Skies” is a near abstract scene of a snowy field in white, grey, and black tones. The spare branches of two trees are stark against the cloudy sky. It is cold and bleak but for the soft pink tones in the clouds that take the chill off the scene. In the center right, faint wisps of yellow hint at a warmer sun.
“Pomegranate and Mandarins,” Sarah Bird’s still life oil-on-panel, captures the essence of these two fruits that appear in northern markets through the winter but that carry with them the ripeness of summer and the promise of spring. The ruby-red, gem-like succulent seeds of the pomegranate spill from the tough, split skin in silken streams of glistening juice. Complementing the rich tones of the pomegranate, the deep orange mandarins await peeling to reveal their refreshing sweetness.