Winter

Suzanne Poursine Massion

   I paint the prairies, farmland, open spaces, and forests of my adopted mid-western home, because they are quickly disappearing under asphalt and roof tops. This page features scenes of winter.

    A tall grass prairie, a golden field of ripening soy beans, acres of field corn, tasseled out and blowing in the wind, are some of my favorite subjects. Change the season, add falling snow, drop the sun low in the sky so it casts long shadows, and the same subjects are transformed by winter. I love the contrast of light and shadow that snow allows me to put on canvas. If the light is cold, as it frequently is in winter, then I paint warm shadows.

    Although the bulldozer will level some of the rolling hills, dig man-made lakes, and permanently alter the land, I can preserve familiar landmarks in my paintings and give these unique spaces a second life.

    Collectors of my work tell me they are not just purchasing a painting, but acquiring a window into a vanishing world. Many people who love landscape art look for a certain quality in the paintings they buy; a view to the outdoors. They want to see where prairie grasses rise above the snow drifts and provide food for many birds, where snow covered fallen oaks shelter the dens of fox and racoon, and where oak-hickory woods sleep under winter's mantle.

    It's quite a thrill: having an art collector share my view and wish to own one of my landscapes. Then I know something I created has found a new home.