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Friday, 24 December 2010

Winter Landscapes - Icy Winter by George Gardner Symons

For the next few posts, I'm going to take the opportunity to highlight, for our wider appreciation, some paintings of landscapes in winters by artists from different countries, different continents, different centuries and different painting styles.

 Icy Winter by George Gardner Symons
oil on canvas, 101.6 cm (40 in.), Width: 76.2 cm (30 in.)

This first one is by an artist who seems to have been completely besotted by snow.  George Gardner Symons (1861-1930) is an American impressionist artist who specialised in winter landscapes.  He died in January 1930 aged 64. 

You can appreciate a range of his winter landscapes here.  What I particularly like about them is
  • the vantage points and compositions which suggest to me a man who liked to find the best spot rather than the one easiest to paint from. 
  • the colours he finds in snow
Symons’ exposure to Impressionism in Europe has a lasting influence on his work. He painted “en plein air” and his is generally classified as an “American Impressionist”. Though he is noted in particular for his scenes of New England in the Winter, he is considered a member of the California School of American Impressionism.

Wherever he painted, Symons rendered his landscapes in clear, strong compositions, with a vibrant color sense, and the kind of crisp, deliberate brushwork that makes the work of so many American Impressionist painters wonderfully appealing.
Other references include:
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    3 comments:

    1. Casey Klahn24 December 2010 at 14:58

      Interesting how clearly he painted.

      That seems unlike the impressionists to me, but I am not very thoroughgoing in my visual knowledge of the Impressionists.

      Wonderful example, too.

      ReplyDelete
    2. Making A Mark24 December 2010 at 15:07

      Thanks Casey

      My impression (pun!) is that the American Impressionists don't look necessarily like the French Impressionists - more blurring at the edges of the definition if you like?

      ReplyDelete
    3. Leslie Hawes24 December 2010 at 18:55

      A most beautiful painting! Thank you, Katherine for introducing me to Symons.
      I can definitely see the 'California' Impressionism appearance of this. Very strong color.

      ReplyDelete

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