Winter in Maine seems longer than it really is sometimes. We reach a point, along about mid-March, when it seems spring is still a long way off. But, it really is just around the corner, and now--what with global warming--it is even earlier than usual. We went from morning walks on frozen snow-pack and woods full of snow, to mud-puddles and leaves in what seemed like the blink of an eye this year. Suddenly, spring is popping out all over, and the wood frogs in the larger forest pools have been croaking up a storm, green shoots are busting out from under the dead leaves from last fall, and--most of all--the mosses have burst into the greenest greens you can imagine.
As a painter, I have a fine appreciation for the entire spectrum of colors, but I also have always loved green, just a little bit more than all the other colors. Every paint maker has an array of greens that stem from bright yellow-green, i.e. Cadmium green pale, to deep forest greens in both cool and warm varieties. One of my all-time favorites is a color from Williamsburg paints, Courbet green. It is a very opaque, dark and warm green that looks almost blackish when it is around bright and lighter colors, but becomes a deep olive, forest shade when it is juxtaposed with other darks, like indigo, or dioxazine violet.
But, there is really no paint that can scintillate the way new mosses do in morning sunlight. I took some images this morning, in the hope that my humble wee pocket camera could give you some idea of how beautiful these islands of green were.
Enjoy.......
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