"New Year's Day -- Lake Michigan" -- plein air field study -- 8x10" -- Margie Guyot

Yes, it was COLD and WINDY! After the last experience of painting in a blizzard down at the lakeshore, I made up my mind to wait until better weather. Obviously, I changed my mind. It was New Year's Day. What better way to spend it than going out painting in the wilds? Actually, this was the 2nd visit to the lake on New Year's Day. I'd gone down there in the morning for a nice, long hike. I wanted to see the ice chunks piled up. I had no intention of going down there to paint. I hiked about 2 miles up along the shoreline, then back again, snow blowing in my face.

Got home about 10 AM, laid down for a little rest. The next thing I knew, the phone was ringing. It was noon! My buddies were calling, wanting to go out painting, down by the lake. How could I say no?

It was threatening snow, but we lucked out this time. Only light flurries. Windy and horribly cold, but I wanted to try to paint the big blocks of ice that were starting to pile up along the shore. We've got another 2 - 3 months of winter to go, and I'm really interested in seeing how much ice piles up. So stay tuned for more ice paintings now & then! I must admit, though, I'm looking forward to doing another still life in my nice, warm studio.

The same thing happened this time that happened last time I painted out there: the wind whipped the painting out of my hands and it ended face-down in the snow. With a fine coating of sand on it. I had to let it sit overnight in the studio so the snow melted off.

I'm really looking forward to returning to this area when we have a sunny day. The ice chunks, some of them, had hints of turquoise blue in them. Ah -- the next best thing to painting in the Arctic! It's my dream to go paint the icebergs someday. Hope I can come up with the money before the icebergs all melt.