I like what Claude Monet accomplished in his paintings of snow, so I decided to spend some time with his “Effete de Neige à Giverny.” The painting is in our art museum now—a wonderful opportunity for me to study it. Gray-white, blue-white, lavender-white, white-white.

Then I came home and began to paint this copy of it. Slowly, quietly, just barely brushing any color onto the paper. Like snow falling.

Of course I don’t claim this painting as my own. The point is to learn from another painter, and this is one of the best ways. As I painted I felt the cold, and the lack of central heating in that farm house (where the inhabitants do not feel the lack, because no such thing exists yet). I trudged into that grove of trees beyond the buildings, I shoveled snow to get into the barn.

Right after I painted this, we got more snow at one time than I have ever experienced in my 40 years in this coastal climate. It looked like this. Trees broke under the weight of the sodden snow, power lines ruptured, people were without electricity for days.

I apologize. I only wanted to follow Monet through the snow!