This little landscape is in progress. I started it plein air years ago (well actually I was sitting in the car painting out the window with the engine turned off, but it was still pretty cold) When it was finished I lent it to my grandmother to fill an empty spot on her wall. Grandma was an artist: she went to art school in her youth, but gave it up when she married. She couldn't bear the thought of being an amateur lady painter and never touched a brush again, but she kept her cool, elegant, aesthetic and her love of art. We were very close. When she died this summer at 102, I lost my best and oldest ally in life, one of my closest friends, and I got the painting back.

I had been pleased when I painted it, and had seen it on my grandmother's wall with some frustration there hangs a good sale if I could only get it back somehow but when I finally brought it home I realized that it was, in reality, quite weak: too pale, even for a snow scene and too thinly painted. I decided to try to bring it back to life. I've worked on it a few times now and although it has gained considerably in color, breadth and vitality it is not yet what I want it to be.