December, January and February

Claude Monet was known as the first impressionist painter. In this scene I especially like the bird on the gate.  I have always loved birds for their freedom, the wonderful songs and colors.  I am painting a series with a bird theme but after looking at this painting and how the viewer's eye goes to the tiny bird surrounded by the beautiful lights and shadows I may re-think how to go about painting my bird series.

​ This is just one of Monet's winter paintings:The Magpie by Claude Monet (1868-69)
Monet was a master of the winter scene – he painted more than 100 of them, and when Edouard Manet saw the Impressionist’s snowscapes he abandoned any effort to make his own. This is Monet’s largest winter painting, depicting a single black bird on a fence in Etretat – but what’s most thrilling about the work is the shadows on the snow, done not in black but in a convention-shocking blue.