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Winter Storm in Oklahoma
by Andrew Harmantas
Oil on canvas in birch panel
Original Painting Image size 14" x 18"
Framed size 19" x 25" (wood plein aire frame)
My idea of quality time is being next to a railroad track when a train is approaching. Most of my paintings are the
result of these encounters. Having watched the railroad scene in North America for over 60 years, I have much to
draw from. Winter Storm in Oklahoma is a scene I saw hundreds of times. I lived in southwest Oklahoma for over
ten years, and close to my house was the Southwest Extension of the Frisco Railroad. It connected Oklahoma City to
a western connection with the Santa Fe Railroad at Floydada, Texas. I frequently heard trains coming from miles away,
and had time to go the couple of short blocks to be trackside in advance of the train’s passing. Compared to other
parts of the country, the landscape out there is sparse, with a semi-arid climate, but you’d never know it when a
typical Oklahoma storm passed through. They did often, creating brief but intense weather. Just before the storms hit,
the sky would darken, and the light assumed a diffuse eeriness that flattened out the color spectrum to a narrow
range of grays. To accurately depict this kind of light takes a limited color range palette, and more care has to be
taken to modulate color and control values so the mood isn’t destroyed by a dark or a light that doesn’t belong in
those conditions. After making my initial sketch on the canvas, I laid down an imprimatura of gray, and then began
adding lighter and darker shades where they seemed to belong, until the image I had in mind began to emerge,
frequently wiping out some passages that seemed either too dark or too light. Once the underpainting was dry, I began
to add muted tones of color, juxtaposing warm and cool shades to accurately portray those areas receiving indirect
light from the break in the clouds near the horizon. Accents from the headlight, and from the street lamp in the
middle distance, and the wires strung from poles, completed the painting. Many of my paintings are detailed studies
of locomotives operating in their environment, but occasionally, as with this painting, the theme is more about light
and mood.
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