Marsh Winter

Georgia has lots of swamps and marshes. They are wild and beautiful. One of my favorite wetlands was at Ocmulgee Mounds National Monument. I used to hike there a lot.

One Christmas I was doing small oil paintings as gifts for guests at my Christmas party. I painted this painting as one of the gifts. I imagined what the wetlands at Ocmulgee Mounds would look like with snow, and this is what I came up with. I had never seen snow in Georgia at that time, but as the artist, I can make decisions to change reality in my artwork.

I teach art, and one of the things that I like to tell my students is that they are responsible for their artwork. They decide what goes in the picture, and don’t need to be dictated to by a still life, or a landscape. Make decisions to make interesting art!