A Walk in the Woods: The Artistry of Snow

The snow that fell on Thursday is still clinging to limb and twig. When I walked through the woods on Friday, the world was transformed: every dark branch was outlined in white, as though to emphasize its movement through space.




The snow was a thoughtful artist, adding a thick line here, a thinner one there, in order to balance the drawing in its lights and darks. And like all good art, it made me more aware, more alert to the shifts of overlapping lines, to their subtle changes in direction, to their relationships.




At times the style changed, from a more classical rendering of ordered space to an all-over pattern, like the work of Jackson Pollock or Milton Resnick.




Or there was an emphasis on graceful flowing lines, as beautiful and fresh and simple as any line drawing by Matisse.




Looking closer, I saw the crystalline snow delicately balanced on an arching branch, catching droplets of light,




and patches of white clung expressively to the only warm color left in the white and gray and brown woods.