Ice Houses

Left: 'Untitled #1' - Catherine Opie
Right Top: 'Spider Island' - Scott Peterman Right Bottom: 'Kents Landing' - Scott Peterman

About 5 or 6 years ago I was browsing Amazon.com and I came across a book of photographs by Catherine Opie. The book was called 'Skyways and Icehouses'. I put it on my wish list where its remained ever since. When I first found the book it was listed at something like $25.00. Well, now it's available only as a collectable and the minimum price I've seen anywhere for the same book , and thats for a used copy, is about $88.00. So I'm kicking myself I didn't buy it when I first found it. Because I still love her Icehouse photographs. Opie took the photographs as part of a project she did during a yearlong residency at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I understand that the Icehouse photographs were exhibited in a very large format which must have made the experience of standing beside them really incredible.

A few years later I came across the Ice Shack photographs of Scott Peterman. Again the photographs have been exhibited in a large format: 30" x 38 1/2" according to an article in Art in America magazine written by Melissa Kuntz.

I love the vast whiteness of the landscape, the minimalist ice shack structures. These photographs embody for me what I find so beautiful about winter.

Wolfgang Bloch

'Untitled No 117'

'Untitled No 126'

The line between sea and sky, and waves, this time from Ecuadorian born artist and surfer Wolfgang Bloch. Both paintings above are done with oil on wood.

David Gonville

Recently I came across the mixed media paintings of Rhode Island artist David Gonville. These three are from his 'Hinterland' series. I think they are beautiful. I'm not sure if the scenes are supposed to be of the beach in the winter but they feel that way to me. They remind me of the winter beach here on Cape Cod where I live.
Prints of some of Davids Paintings can be found for sale here.