Find Beauty in the Darkness of Winter
Real Beauty is so deep you have to move into darkness in order to understand what beauty is.— Barry Lopez
As our earth rolls through the seasons, night time gallops towards the solstice. Already the night is longer than the day and during the next 21 days, it will grow even longer.
In the Northern Hemisphere, life has learned to dance to the music in the long dark nights. Fruiting plants relish this time to format their flowering and fruiting wood for next spring and summer. Cold weather scarifies seeds so that they can germinate when the days grow longer. Bears, of course, hibernate, rest, and sometimes emerge in spring with cubs born in the dark winter nest.
In California, spring has already begun undercover of the growing dark. There’s a faint glow of green in the fields as grasses that were dormant in our dry summer sprout with the first rains. Even as oak and maple leaves shout and glow in these last days of autumn, the pines pump life into their lanky limbs. And the underground web of mycelial life has begun fruiting, making mushroom gardens in our forests.
I welcome this time of year. The bright chilly days make my mind quicken, perhaps because there is enough time to rest in the long cold dark nights. I always get outside, even on cloudy, rainy or snowy days. Time outside, even just a few moments, lets daylight touch the back of my eyes, and I sleep all the better for it.
I hope Solstice brings you peace, and rest. Sleep well with knowledge that the days will grow longer starting osn December 21, the longest night of the year. Hope will turn with the season.
This painting and other nature inspired abstracts on vintage book paper are 20% off through December 16. Order early to make sure they arrive by Christmas. Use discount code at checkout: SOLSTICE2023
A lone tree reflected in still water in the calm of evening will bring calm and peace to your home.
Part of a series of work painted in gouache and watercolor on vintage printing paper that is nearly 100 years old. These paintings are very delicate, as you might expect on such elderly paper, and should be framed under glass and protected from moisture and sunlight. Painting will fit a 5” x 7” mat. Each full page varies slightly in size, but are roughly 6” x 8.5” if you prefer to use a custom mat to display whole page.
Mats not included.
Shipping included.
