At the Artists' Gallery in Columbia, although there is an assortment of subject matter, styles and mediums on display, you'll notice that some of the artists definitely are in a winter frame of mind.
Marian Gliese is known for oil paintings depicting trees, birds and other natural life in an abstracted manner. A tree's branches, for instance, typically are reduced to curving brown extensions from the trunk. She applies that schematic approach to two small paintings in a "Tree of Joy" series.
Yes, they're Christmas trees, whose branches support a few colorful ornaments, as well as wrapped packages under the tree. Without getting overly detailed, she makes it clear that these are not ordinary trees at any time of year.
Several of the artists in the show apply a more realistic approach to winter landscapes.
John Stier's photograph "Barn in Heavy Snow" is notable for showing that there is heavy snow on the ground and that it's still snowing so much that the large falling flakes are just in front of the camera lens. Amid all that whiteness, a brown-sided old barn seems like it has hunkered down for the season.
Bonita Glaser's watercolor "Deep Into Winter" similarly depicts a barn and other farm buildings nestled within a snow-covered landscape.
Wildlife survives under such conditions, of course, as you can see in Jing Jy Chen's watercolor and ink "Colorful Pheasants." The color alluded to in the title actually exists mainly in the colorful feathers on the heads of two birds whose bodies otherwise are a monochromatic brown that is in sharp contrast to the snowy field through which they walk.
Other artists in this exhibit spare us the winter snow, but take on subjects more associated with autumn.
In Cathleen Cui's oil painting "Persimmons," a healthy harvest of them fill a blue-and-white ceramic bowl. It's a typical still-life arrangement, but one rarely encounters persimmons as subject matter. This same artist also has fall in mind for the oil painting "Colors of the Spectrum," whose tightly cropped depiction of fall leaves features various colors.
In Deborah Maklowski's colored pencil "Blackbird," a single bird assertively rests on a tree branch. The trees have lost all of their leaves, and so that formidable bird looks solitary up there.
An austere landscape is presented in Robynn Searight's watercolor "The Birches," in which the composition is anchored in the foreground by five tree trunks whose black-speckled white surface immediately lets you know that these are birch trees. The backing landscape is handled in a somewhat abstracted way, with horizontal bands of green, brown and gold.
Definitely set in the warmer months, Joan Forester's hand-tinted black-and-white photograph "House With a Blue Roof" presents an old house in the middle of a flowering field. The application of color is very gentle here. Color also is softly applied to her hand-tinted photos "White Barn" and "Yellow Barn."
Some of the artists in this exhibit depict landscape subject matter within a deliberately small format.
In Nancy Lee Davis' oil painting "Vineyard on Hillside," for instance, she avoids the panoramic view that most artists would favor and instead restricts the composition to three rows of grape vines growing up the side of a vibrantly green hill.
Also working on a small scale is Deborah Hoeper, whose watercolor "Clouds" features a blue, white and pink sky hovering over a blue and white sea.
Hoeper likewise offers a tightly cropped little view of nature in "Surf," depicting the zone where sea foam meets sand.
Among the numerous artists in the show producing craft items, Dave McCann makes a strong impression with a relatively large "Jewelry Box." The maple box and its more darkly hued cherry lid prompt you to consider differences in grain and color.
And, a craft item that would come in handy for holiday entertaining is Winnie Coggins' clay "Light Blue Celebration Bowl." The various colors and linear designs running across its surface are food for the eye, while a gracious host surely would place food for the stomach on that sleek clay surface.
"The Gift of Art" runs through Jan. 23 at the Artists' Gallery, in the American City Building at 10227 Wincopin Circle in Columbia. Call 410-740-8249 or go to http://www.artistsgallerycolumbia.com.