Where The Warmth Fades
Where The Warmth Fades
By Jonathan McAfee
"Where The Warmth Fades" is a deeply striking, soulful, and visually vibrant 9x12in. oil painting on canvas by Evergreen, Colorado artist Jonathan McAfee. This vertical composition features a solitary backcountry skier, seen from a three-quarter view from behind, skinning up a massive, snow-covered mountain face. The figure, small relative to the environment, is depicted with blonde hair, a bright turquoise backpack, and skis on foot, with two trekking poles planted in the snow. They are ascending on a path of heavily textured snow rendered in fractured, luminous shades of pale blue, lavender, and violet, defining the cool, deep mountain slopes. Above them, an enormous, jagged mountain peak dominates the upper frame, capped with thick, sculptural applications of white and light sienna snow and shadowed rock. The scene is set against a dramatically vibrant and exuberant, graphic sky—a solid, glowing gradient of warm salmon and deep crimson pink. It is a powerful, high-energy statement piece that effortlessly bridges modern pop design with the soulful emotional depth of contemporary figurative Western art, highlighting the resilience of the individual within a wild, sublime landscape.
McAfee showcases a masterful handling of contrasting techniques, seamlessly synthesizing heavily layered, sculptural oil strokes in the figure and the foreground with flatter, high-key pigments in the background. The skier, their backpack, and the mountain texture are rendered with an intense, expressive impasto, with each deliberate brushstroke visible. The snow path itself is a visual feast of textured pattern play, combining subtle washes with thick patches of varied blues and cool purples. In a brilliant structural contrast, this highly tactile scene is set against a vibrant pink sky. Housed in a handsome dark wood floater frame (as referenced in WhereTheWarmthFades_framed.jpg), this piece is a complex and celebratory contemporary masterwork.
Specifications
Dimensions: 9x12in.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Artist: Jonathan McAfee (Evergreen, CO)
Framing: Housed in a dark wood floater frame
Style: Contemporary Figurative Western / Modern Expressionist Portraiture / Mountain Landscape