River ice
Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 11:08AM Last night, too tired to cook after working late to finish a rush project for a client, I treated myself to Wing Night (half price on Wednesday evenings) at McCleary's Pub, just a few blocks from my house down on Front Street. It was pretty cold outside, with a biting wind, so not many folks were out, and my favorite local joint was relatively quiet. I got to enjoy my Thai wings and beer in a cozy booth without having made a reservation. As I was getting settled, one of the young bartenders had bundled up to walk home, and was remarking to a patron who was complaining of the cold that "you just dress for the temperature, breathe it in and accept the cold instead of fighting it". The patron shook his head in disagreement, but I had to smile because I shared the bartender's perspective. I like the adversity and discomfort of real winter weather.
So this brilliantly frigid morning, I could hardly excuse myself from suiting up for a little time down in the woods by the river just because the thermometer read 7 degrees fahrenheit. And once I got outside, the steady wind from the north made it feel a lot colder than that. But of course I went down there anyway.
As I crossed the railroad tracks, I saw that the river was carrying big floes of broken ice, with dark glimmers of open water shifting shape as the ice moved ponderously downstream. The shoreline was frozen solid, but the passing ice packs ground against the jagged edge, crackling and groaning. An arctic sound.
With the wind chill, I knew my fingers would stiffen into icicles if I tried to sketch bare handed, so I worked clumsily, fumbling pencils in gloved hands, squinting into the cold morning sun, until I started going numb and figured I'd done enough. Stuffing my sketchbook and pencils back into my shoulder bag, I walked back through the snowy woods towards home, listening to the grinding crunch of tons of moving ice fade behind me. Feeling rewarded for the effort and in some inarticulable way, young and hale and defiant like that bartender choosing to walk instead of drive home on a cold winter night.
river ice, 11-1/4 x 8, Derwent Inktense pencils
Reader Comments (2)
I love the use of color to guide the eye in this sketch. The cool palette you're employing definitely has created a sense of winter.
Thanks Neill. Glad it comes across that way, because it sure felt plenty wintry!