On day 8 of Culture Tourist Art Blogmas, we’ll see an Impressionist painting again. Today, I’m bringing you a winter edition of one of Claude Monet’s Haystacks (Effect of Snow and Sun).

Art Blogmas 2022

The Haystacks is a series of some thirty paintings on that subject painted by Claude Monet in 1890 and 1891. Monet used the same motif to show how light affects the colours. And painted it during different seasons and times of the day.

Read more: Impressionists in Paris

Claude Monet: Haystacks (Effect of Snow and Sun)

The painting we’re hosting in the Art Blogmas today is called Haystack (Effect of Snow and Sun). It’s pretty straightforward to what Claude Monet was interested in while painting it. As we could notice before, on one of his paintings shared in this Art Blogmas on day 3, he was utterly impressed by snow. He could play with colours, reflections and textures well while painting it.

Monet is again using so many different colours to show the whiteness of snow. We recognise shades of yellow, ocher, blue, pink, purple etc. His shadows are not grey, either. Instead, he’s using purple to show the darker areas of the painting.

Read more: Monet & The Water Lilies

It’s fascinating how, although his motive is white, and we recognise his theme and snow immediately, this painting has no white colour. Instead, he’s using all those pastel colours to show the winter day and the soft light of the golden hour.

There are some trees in the background, but he’s only showing them as a blurry background here. Just as we would see them on a foggy winter day.

I hope you’re enjoying this Art Blogmas so far. And in exploring all the different ways, artists depicted winter in their paintings throughout art history.

If you don’t want to miss other paintings I will share with you in this year’s Art Blogmas, be sure to check in here tomorrow morning. Or, follow along on the Culture Tourist Facebook page and Instagram profile.