Winter Moon
in Pine Valley

About the Painting

The painting opens on a hillside of snow that slopes from the lower left toward the right, and a single tall pine stands at the left, its branches heavy with white. Behind it, a long line of smaller pines runs across the middle of the sheet toward the horizon.

The moon rises just above the tree line, a round shape of pale gold and rose with a few darker touches across its face. Above it, the sky is a band of deep blue and violet broken by a long streak of gold cloud, as though the last light of evening still lingers at the edge of the night. Snow falls across the entire scene in flecks of white of every size, from fine points to round drops, and the flecks give the painting its movement.

The pines are painted in deep blue and green, with white left along the tops of the branches where the snow has settled. Long violet shadows reach across the snow from the trees, and the snow itself carries warm and cool notes of cream, lavender and blue. Donna keeps the edges of the far pines soft, so they recede into the falling snow, while the nearest tree stands sharp against the sky. At the foot of the tall pine, a small patch of warm ochre marks its trunk, one of the few warm notes on the ground.

The painting belongs to The Winter Room, where it hangs beside a red bird in an aspen forest, a poinsettia and a snowman in a red scarf. The title names the scene simply, a pine valley under a winter moon, and the painting makes that place feel close enough to walk into. Donna signs her name at the lower left, in blue, just above the snow. Enlarge the painting to see how each snowflake sits on top of the layered color beneath it.