Secrets of Snow - A New Abstract Glacier Painting by Artist Tatiana Iliina

Tatiana Iliina's enduring initiative to acknowledge the situation with receding and disappearing glaciers worldwide continues with the 41st painting in the collection, "Secrets of Snow".

This is one of her smaller glacier paintings, measuring only 8 x 10 inches.

For a limited time it will be possible to purchase this canvas at Tatiana's online gallery.

"Forces of Nature" - New Glacier Painting by Tatiana Iliina

Canadian artist Tatiana Iliina has completed another abstract glacier painting. This one is entitled "Forces of Nature" and acknowledges the unfathomable powers that have resulted in the shrinking or disappearance of most of the glaciers on the planet.

What a winter it was been in Canada!

Let's go back and review the norm and the actual for each of the past few months:

October norm: trick-or-treating with winter coats over costumes in hard frozen cold, or icy drizzle or snow

October '09: trick-or-treating was in light jackets, or just the costumes

November norm: several snowfalls, weeks of -10 C weather or colder.

November '09: no snow, green grass, flowers in the garden, felt like early October weather

December norm: lots of wet snow, occasional warm periods, some very cold stretches

December '09: only slightly below freezing most of the time, with a fair bit of snow

January norm: deep freeze, tons of snow

January 2010: variable weather some snow, no very cold weather at all

February norm: deep freeze, lots of snow, possible brief thaw

February 2010: + temps most of the month, a scattering of snow, milder than March should be

March norm: usually ranges from extreme cold to near freezing, plenty of snow

March 2010: winter is finished - what winter?

Of course Canada is a huge country. This year there was some colder weather out west in Edmonton and Saskatoon but it has been warm right across the country since February.

Environment Canada has confirmed that this has been the warmest winter on record.

2009 was also the warmest winter on record in Australia.

The Rhone Glacier - A Classic Case Study in Receding Glaciers

Because of its location in relatively accessible Switzerland, the Rhone Glacier has been somewhat of a tourist attraction since the 1800s or even earlier.

So among the thousands of glaciers around the world that are receding or have already disappeared, the Rhone Glacier is one of the ones that has been observed the most over time.

Here's a collage that shows the shrinkage of the Rhone Glacier:

It looks extreme but that older photo could have been from the 1800s. Still, there is little doubt that this reduction in the size of thousands of glaciers around the world is going to have an increasingly noticeable effect on river flow and fresh water supplies on everything from drinking water to irrigation to navigation.

Also a pretty darn good reason to paint the glaciers. In this abstract series by Tatiana Iliina, viewers are encouraged to appreciate the natural beauty of glaciers and, possibly, to reflect on just how precious and irreplaceable all the natural features of our planet are.

This is the latest painting, the 26th, in Tatiana Iliina's glacier series:

 

The Rhone Glacier painting is 30 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas, using the palette knife technique.

Tatiana Iliina's 25th original glacier painting just released

Tatiana Iliina's new abstract glacier painting is named "Glaciology".



The painting is the latest in a series that began in about Aug., 2007.

In all the hullabaloo generated over the so-called glaciergate, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the glaciers are disappearing at an alarming rate.

Glaciology measures 30 x 36 inches (about 92 x 76 cm) and is painted in acrylics on canvas with a palette knife.