NEW YEAR'S SNOW 1938

Eric Ravilious created this artwork, New Year's Snow, which reminds me of folk art with it's clean lines. I imagine Ravilious layered color upon color, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. Sympathizing with Ravilious, I try to get a sense of what it might have been like to create this piece, and I start thinking about the materials: the texture of the paper, the consistency of the paint, how he controlled the brush. The paint here looks quite thin, and each mark meticulously placed with a kind of tenderness and care. Look at the way he renders the hills and the trees in a beautiful winter landscape. The scene feels quiet, suspended. I wonder if Ravilious was thinking of other painters at this time, how the ideas of one spill over into the work of another. Painting is this continuous exchange of ideas. His embodied expression embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, inviting us to find meaning in the understated stillness of this scene.