Winter 1904

Igor Grabar made this painting, using thick strokes of oil paint in shades of white, blue, and yellow. I can almost feel the cold air and see the bright sunlight reflecting off the snow. The trees stand together, their branches reaching up into the sky. It must have taken Grabar so long to build up this image, layering the colours and moving the paint around, trying to get that feeling of crisp air and a heavy blanket of snow. That one particularly thick yellow stroke used to depict the trunk of a tree is so confident and assured. It says, “Yes, this is a tree.” Maybe Grabar was thinking about other painters who came before him, like the Impressionists, who also tried to capture fleeting moments of light and colour. I like to think of artists as being in a conversation with each other across time. Grabar's painting is a reminder that there are endless ways to see and experience the world. Each brushstroke invites us to pause, breathe, and appreciate the simple beauty of a winter day.