Nocturne in Blue: On Thin Ice. Leonard Koscianski, 42″x26″, oil on canvas, 2020.
On Thin Ice is a medium size painting in oil on canvas. It is composed primarily of blues. Most of the colors range from green blues to purple blues. It is a suburban winter scene with a skater on thin ice. Growing up on a pond we were always eager for the ice to form in the winter. We would test it when it was still pretty thin by slowly walking out on the pond, listening for cracks. The most dangerous time was in early spring when the ice would thaw unevenly creating thin spots and dangerous holes.
The nocturnal winter atmosphere is created by painting most of the composition in blues. There are greenish blues in the foreground going to dark purplish blues in the background, where a pack of dogs run through the bare trees. The only warm colors come from the houses and the church. The warm light spilling out from a house illuminates a skater returning home. There is a hole in the ice that suggests that the skating is still a little dangerous.
Blue Jays, winter birds, fly in from the lower left. The trees are brittle and bare. The outdoor landscape seems cold and dark. The life and warmth coming from inside are a gift of civilization.