For the international symposium, I painted a watercolor of a wintery rural landscape. This was painted from reference using a photo I took on a road trip to Flathead Lake a few years ago. I picked this photo to paint because to me, it instills a deep loneliness. When I think about winter, I think about the death and decay stage of the cycle of life. My hope with this painting is to communicate some of the feelings that accompany this stage, like loneliness and stagnation