One of the things about the weather in southeastern Pennsylvania that I found interesting was how quickly the conditions could change as moist weather fronts rolled in from the Atlantic, or came blowing through the region from the western mountains, or seemed warm from the south, or freezing when coming down from the north, or any combination of these. In this particular situation, there had been a snow storm three days previously which was followed by a single unseasonably warm, sunny day that melted the topmost layer of snow, and that in turn was followed later that night by a bitter freezing cold spell.
As a result of this heavy snowfall, the following thaw and sudden freeze, the snow on campus had crusted over in open areas of lawns and fields with a thin glaze of ice that easily reflected light. During the daytime the snow was understandably beautiful and sparkled in the sunlight, but I hadn’t thought much more about it as the workday progressed until I needed to go outside to get to the dinning hall for supper. The sun had just set and the temperature was quickly dropping as I left my house and started to walk across the campus. I was coming up the main drive in the direction toward the administration building, named “the Barn,” and approaching a line of white pine and hemlock trees when my attention was caught by an interesting and unexpected quality of light seen coming from an open space just beyond the trees.
Both, ambient light being cast from the sky, and incandescent light shinning from a building light fixture onto the uneven terrain and icy glaze of melted snow had visually created a yellow pathway of shimmering light coming across the icy snow surface; and as I looked at the visual effect while walking it gave an impression like seeing light that is being reflected off a small brook or moving stream of water. I stopped walking and took time to enjoy looking at this setting and studied it, and made some notes about colors and details, but after a short while I had to yield to the increasing cold, and get inside where it was warm. Later that night I started this painting in my studio while the experience was still fresh in my mind. And as needed, I could easily step outside from time to time to go refer to particular landscape details, and make needed adjustments or corrections on the painting.