'Moguls' by Richard Wieth fills a vertical 14 x 11 inch panel with a field of rolling snow, with no sky, horizon or border to rest on. Cream-white ridges of paint stack across the picture in broad diagonal bands that rise and dip like a slope of bumps. Near the lower center a curving track bends through the snow, a pale line running beside a darker blue channel, and it is the one clear path through an otherwise broken surface. A strip of dark gray-green at the upper left corner is the only hint of anything beyond the snow.
Blues carry the painting. Ultramarine and cobalt sit in the deepest shadows, cerulean and sky blue move across the middle, and gray-green, lilac and periwinkle fill the spaces between. The lights are warm creams and ivory, with small flecks of lemon yellow, pale mint and soft pink scattered like glints. Because the whites lean warm and the shadows lean cool, the snow looks lit by low sun instead of flat white, and the small yellow and pink touches stay quiet enough to keep the picture mostly blue and cream.
Richard Wieth does not outline the bumps. Each one is built from a patch of shadow blue set beside a patch of light cream, so the form appears where the two meet. Shadows stretch down the slope in long, soft shapes, and the lights land on the upper edge of each rise. Several creamy strokes are heavy enough to stand up from the surface as small peaks of paint that catch real light as you move past. The track near the bottom is painted more smoothly, with thin, curved strokes, so it reads as cut into the snow.
The brushwork is loose and layered. Short, flat, squared strokes overlap one another, and dragged passages let the weave of the surface show through the paint. In thinner areas, earlier blue layers glow beneath the cream. Up close this snow landscape oil painting is a mosaic of marks, and from several feet away the marks settle into a slope in shadow and sun. The diagonal rhythm of the bands and the bend of the track hold the composition together. The eye lands first on the brightest cream passages near the center, follows the track as it curves, then drifts out along the ridges. Values stay in a middle range with accents of near-white, so no corner feels heavy. Richard Wieth signed the painting WIETH in blue at the lower right.
'Moguls' measures 14 x 11 inches, oil on panel, and is unframed, so it needs to be framed before it is hung. At this size it suits a bedroom, hallway, entry, study, cabin or small gallery wall, alone or beside other landscapes. A white or pale gray frame would keep the snowy feel, a thin dark walnut frame would ground the blues, and a slim silver or natural ash frame would stay cool and light. The blues and creams also sit easily beside gray, white and natural wood, so the painting pairs well with other cool-toned landscapes.
