Call It Winter 2003

Editor: Right now, we’re looking at "Call It Winter," a 2003 acrylic and watercolor painting by Will Barnet. I'm really struck by how calming it feels, despite the almost severe geometric forms. It reminds me of a slightly deconstructed landscape. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Calming is a great word! For me, this painting is all about visual poetry. Barnet takes these recognizable, earthy shapes – hinting at perhaps stones, or branches – and lets them waltz across the canvas. The palette itself, that muted teal and ochre, evokes the stillness just before a snowfall. Does it feel almost like a memory to you? Editor: Definitely a memory, but maybe one I haven't personally experienced? The colours are familiar, yet the shapes feel like something just out of reach. Is there a specific mood that Barnet was known for capturing? Curator: Barnet often explored themes of memory and the passage of time in his work. I feel he captures that bittersweet ache of nostalgia, that tender longing for something undefined. And the way he plays with negative space allows the eye to complete the forms, to participate in the remembering. What if we imagine these shapes as not only winter stones or barren trees, but rather pieces of a shared past? Editor: I like that! It shifts my perception entirely, as though the geometric forms were not separate objects but overlapping fragments from old recollections, thus generating a melancholic feeling. Thanks! Curator: Exactly. And thinking about how it all pieces together like that… really adds new depth. Thank you.