The Country Club Plaza is a favorite destination among both locals and visitors to Kansas City. It is well-known for its holiday lights, which outline the architectural patterns of each building. On Thanksgiving evening, a ceremony is held in which the lights are switched on, an event that typically draws hundreds of thousands to the Plaza streets.

This piece began as an onsite sketch on an unseasonably warm December day. The massing of large blocks of value and color were captured with a preliminary plein air painting session. Several reference photos were taken over several hours, some as a light rain began to fall around dusk. This is the timing of the finished piece, which was moved to my studio for completion. In this work, I wanted to capture the essence of the start of the winter season in and around the Plaza. The title of the work is inspired by one of my favorite seasonal albums, released by Sting in 2009.

This artwork is painted in a simple palette of mostly transparent red oxide, yellow ochre, asphaltum, cadmium red medium, cadmium yellow light, ivory black, and titanium white.

This original oil painting measures 48” tall and 24” wide. It is painted on a cradled birch panel with a 2.5”-deep, custom-built natural maple frame. It sells ready to hang and ships free in the U.S.