First Snow

It’s hard to know exactly when the first snow is going to fall here in southcentral Alaska. Sometimes it’s as early as late September, sometimes as late as November. On average,  October is often the month when the snow makes its first appearance, even though it’s often fleeting, only to return in force in November. The time of day and location also varies wildly from year to year.

In 2025, the first snow is etched in my memory, in part because I experienced it just after 5 AM on a Monday morning. With barely a breeze, it was a quiet and dark morning and the snowflakes were huge. Although the snow didn’t last long, it provided a atmospheric scene that I knew I had to paint as soon as I saw it.

This painting was painted on black Legion Stonehenge paper. As a result, I only had to use color for the building in the lower background, the lamp post, the light and the snow. In fact, the whole painting used only four paint colors (white, yellow, brown and black), if my memory serves me right.

Even though this was painted on black paper, art prints look just as good when printed and really captures the atmosphere of the original well.