Winter 1914

Ernest Lawson’s *Winter* is a landscape painting in which dabs of creamy paint evoke a cold winter's day. Looking at this painting, I get a sense of Lawson, out there in the cold, trying to capture the scene with quick, confident strokes. You can almost feel his breath fogging in front of him as he works! I wonder, was he thinking about Monet's snow scenes? About capturing light and atmosphere? The pinks and blues layered into the whites of the snow give the impression of light twinkling on the surface, reflecting upward into the sky. The buildings are rendered with a simplicity that borders on abstraction. Look how they’re softened around the edges. This isn’t about photographic accuracy, it’s more like a feeling. The bare trees in the foreground are also made of paint but still create depth. Lawson, like all artists, had his influences, and in turn, he's inspired countless others to pick up a brush and try to capture the world in their own way. It’s all one big conversation, you know?