Coneflowers, also called Rudbeckia, when left standing in the fall, dry out and morph into an abstract composition, vivid against the snow. They present differently every winter—as if arranged by a master painter—and bring new pleasure.
The winter garden is here recorded four times between 2009 to 2013. In each photo, the site is the same; the plantings are the same; only Nature’s dressing has changed. Sadly, two trees were lost in the years after the earliest (top) photo was made. All five photos were shot from the same, east-facing window in our little house on the edge of Hardy Pond.
In the last scene, from December 18, 2013, a fine haze has subdued the brilliant sun. The finely textured stalks play against the soft, luminous tones of freshly fallen snow. The white backdrop is not a studio prop set there by an artful photographer; rather, it is newly fallen snow covering the pond ice.
January 18, 2009
January 21, 2012
January 16, 2013
February 25, 2013
December 18, 2013
