Museum Response Assignment

            My museum response is on the painting “Winter Morning” by M. C. Heurlin.  It is an oil on canvas and about 4ft high by 8ft long. It is in the upstairs art gallery, towards the back about 7ft off the floor.  The painting is of a dog team traveling down a trail, through a forest with lots of ice fog, as the sun is rising. 

            There are 5 dogs pulling an old fashion cargo sled, with a full load covered in a tarp. You can see the puffs of white from their breath streaming over their heads. The guy on the back of the sled is wearing a fur parka, hat, and gloves.  His snow pants look as if they are made out of a light brown material.  The dog team is angling towards you from the left. 

            The forest is made up of some very ragged looking spruce trees.  They are thinly spaced, but more concentrated and taller in the distance and sides.  This makes it appear that it is the edge of a clearing.  A lot of the trees look as if they are dead with no needles.  The ones that aren’t dead look as if they are half dead.  The branches have a thick layer of snow on them and the trunks are lined with frost.  This puts somewhat of a gloomy look to the picture.

            There is a lot of ice fog and it is really thick at the bottom.  You can only see the upper halves of the trees further back.  You can’t see the sun itself, but the fog is lit up in brilliant colors. Starting with hazy red at the bottom, fading into pink, orange, and bright yellow at the top.  The tips of the trees are silhouetted against the red and pink areas. 

            All of this gives the impression that it is bitterly cold.  This really reminds me of times when it gets extremely cold outside and the ice fog reduces visibility to a few hundred feet.  When I look at the painting I can almost feel myself outside in the cold.  The painting is quite detailed and looks fairly realistic.  It is one of the larger artworks in the gallery.