Oh, it is cold in the north this January! It always has been. From China to France, across the northern hemisphere, there are many sayings about and names for January's chill.
- the ancient Cornish name for January is "the cold air month"
- now is the time that China refers to as the season of "Little Cold" (the season of "Great Cold" comes next week. Beware!)
- an old saying: "as the day lengthens, so the cold strengthens"
- in Yorkshire folklore, the 14th of January is always the coldest day of the year
Now is a time when we want to stay indoors and admire the winter through a thick window. The children may play in the snow for a bit, but then need to come inside to warm up with a cup of hot cocoa.
A northern winter is one of the most beautiful times of year anywhere, whether or not there be snow. It is a time of skeletal beauty, a time when trees and plants show their real shape and structure; it is a time of truth. As nature's starkness in winter is to its plenitude in summer, so drawing is to painting.
Now is the time to teach children to draw with pencil. The most obvious things to draw are the leafless trees all around.
Choose a warm place to sit where a tree can be seen. Make a game of drawing as many of the tiny branches as possible. (If there is not a tree to be found, may the heavens pity you, but it is still possible to provide the children with an image. Click on the one above to enlarge it and use it. But honestly, even a branch glimpsed from a window is better than drawing from another reproduction.)
Make dozens of drawings together. Draw the tree every day in wind, snow, rain and sunshine, with birds and without, as the case may be. Nothing will heighten more a child's observational skills than such an exercise as this.
©2010 Anne Morddel
Seasons South and North
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