The Weather Outside is Frightful

Here in the upper left corner of America we have been is a cold spell with snow and ice on the valley floor (in the Portland metro area). Not a cold as the upper right corner or the upper mid-west, but for the area the coldest for the longest time in 30 years so a weather man reports.
It's a paltry amount by the standards of colder areas yet a sheet of ice puts a damper on crossing the street or getting the mail without the risk for falls, and it means chaining up to get out of the neighborhood to go to the store.
I am grateful that I only have to walk across the street to the studio and flip a switch to get heat and light. The fact that it is sunny with a bright blue sky even if it is a wild chill of 9 is a change from the ever changing shades of gray that are a typical Oregon winter day. The bright light seems to have lightened the colors in the paintings I've started this week. I am working towards a personal abstraction of the landscape or parts and pieces of it;the less it is identified as a specific place and the more universal my image can be of a region,or the idea of a region the better I will have succeeded. Presently the start looks much to specific for this goal. It's so much easier in some ways to try and paint a pleasing interpretation of what is out there. I'll re look a s some of Carl Morris's work and a few other greats and see if I can get some ideas to pursue for my own solution. Greater painters than I hope to be, have spent years and given us many great and different paintings in answer this type of question and I'm only beginning to frame my questions. Such are my ruminations on a cold winters night.
Have a warm and safe Christmas where ever you are in the world.
I'll take some photos of this and some other recent paintings and get them up tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.
B