Mood Indigo VIII Painting

Mood Indigo VIII, 8 x 8 x 1.5 inches, oil and cold wax on Arches paper, mounted on cradled board. Wired and ready to hang. Inspired by daily walks, and painted during the winter of 2022, the Mood Indigo series is about my need to slow down and appreciate the subtle beauty around me. With the waning light--in New Hampshire, it gets dark around 4:30 pm in the throes of the season--I tend to get the winter blues (hence the title, Mood Indigo). And with all that's going on in the world, this year has been particularly tough. But one day while walking along, and then across, a nearby tidal river, I was struck by soft light, striations, different shades of indigo in sky, water, ice, snow. Patterns in reeds and dry grass. Hills watching sentinel in the background. The way the brackish tide heaved shapes of light gray and blue ice against burnt umber rocks and cracked those shapes apart to reveal ragged strips or carved pools of inky black water underneath. I felt a stirring, a need to look closer, and every day became an adventure of wonder: what would I see? what might it mean? I took it all in, let it sift through me, and eventually, this series was born. All paintings are my expression of how what I noticed affected me, while giving room for viewers to add their own story and experience. Working on them opened new worlds and a new appreciation, and showed me once again how art truly does transform our way of being in the world. I now see winter as the waiting, the quiet time before hope, full of subtle beauty seen if one only looks. That is why the paintings needed to be small. They welcome one in, ask to be viewed up close. I hope the paintings in the series give viewers the same solace, serenity, calm, and sense of peace they give me.