Hi everyone, it’s Robbie Cheadle bringing you an interesting reflection by Rebecca Budd on Walking Through Winter with Vincent van Gogh. Rebecca has a keen interest in art and artworks and shares wonderful articles on her blog, Chasing Art. You can find her latest art post here: https://chasingart.ca/2025/11/28/a-gift-of-small-kindnesses/
Walking Through Winter with Vincent
Landscape with Snow by Vincent van Gogh (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
Winter comes in quietly. It does not rush in so much as settle, as if the world is taking a long breath after the brilliant months of autumn. When the first snow falls, everything seems to pause. The noisy parts of life drift away, and what stays is the gentle invitation to pay attention.
It was during a season like this, while reading about the value of meditation in everyday life, that I found myself returning to the paintings of Vincent van Gogh. I realised that his work has always invited a kind of stillness. His colours slow the gaze. His lines draw us inward. His paintings are a way of looking and breathing at the same time. A thought came to mind. Why not spend a year writing small reflections to him? Letters of gratitude, really.
Whenever I stand in front of one of Vincent’s paintings, my first feeling is simply thankfulness. Thankfulness for his courage in seeing the world with an open heart. Thankfulness for his insistence that beauty can be found in the most ordinary places. And thankfulness for the way his work continues to meet us with such honesty. I sometimes wish I could walk back through time just long enough to tell him what his art has given me. Since I cannot, these letters will have to travel in the only direction they can, which is forward.
One of the paintings I return to often in winter is Landscape with Snow, painted in Arles in 1888. Some believe that it was one of the first works Vincent painted after arriving in Arles. Art historians note that it is also part of a small group of snowy landscapes he created between 1882 and 1889 in both oil and watercolour. In this painting, he captures the La Crau plains set against Montmajour and the soft rise of distant hills.
The scene is simple. A pale path stretches into the distance. Frost sits lightly on the fields. A few trees mark the horizon. And a single figure walks on, small but steady. Everything seems hushed, yet the world is not asleep. There is a kind of quiet life woven through the scene.
What I love about this painting is the way Vincent understood winter. He once said that winter was never the end of colour, and he makes that point gently here. Beneath the white, the blues and yellows glow softly. Even the figure in the distance carries a quiet sense of purpose. There is nothing dramatic in their stride. They are simply continuing, step by step.
When I sit with this image, I sense that the figure is all of us. Each of us beginning a season with a little uncertainty and a little hope. Each of us carrying our own inner warmth into the cold. Vincent knew something about this kind of walking. He painted through loneliness, through hardship, through the many small challenges of daily life. And yet his paintings are full of presence and promise. They remind us that stillness is not emptiness. It is preparation. It is the moment before colours return.
This is how Letters to Vincent will begin in 2026. Not as a formal project, but as a way of walking beside someone whose work continues to steady me. A way of acknowledging that art can be a companion, especially in the winter months when the world feels quiet and the days draw close.
And so, I return to that snowy path. To the lone figure moving forward. To the feeling that even in the coldest days, something within us keeps us warm and curious, willing to take the next step. Vincent reminds me that life is always beginning again, even in January, even in snow.
To those who walk their own winter paths, may you find moments of wonder along the way.
About Rebecca Budd
Rebecca Budd is a Canadian blogger and podcaster who writes about art, creativity, and the stories that shape our shared cultural memory. Her work on ChasingART celebrates the ways paintings invite contemplation, offering readers a gentle space to slow down and engage with beauty. She lives in Vancouver and is currently developing a year-long reflective project titled Letters to Vincent.
Find Rebecca Budd
You can find Rebecca Budd on the following WordPress blogs:
Chasing Art: https://chasingart.ca/2025/11/28/a-gift-of-small-kindnesses/
Clanmother: https://clanmother.ca/2025/11/30/the-gifts-of-jane-austen/
Rebecca’s Reading Room: https://rebeccasreadingroom.ca/2025/12/02/poetry-in-winter-a-tale-of-heart-friendship-and-the-shoulds-we-carry/
Tea, Toast & Trivia: https://teatoasttrivia.ca/2025/11/03/season-7-episode-9-yvonne-thevenot-on-mentorship-in-a-changing-world/
About Robbie Cheadle
South African author, photographer, and artist, Robbie Cheadle, has written and illustrated seventeen children’s books, illustrated a further three children’s books, written and illustrated four poetry books and written and illustrated one celebration of cake and fondant art book with recipes. Her work has also appeared in poetry and short story anthologies.
Robbie also has two novels and a collection of short stories published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.
You can find Robbie Cheadle’s artwork, fondant and cake artwork, and all her books on her website here: https://www.robbiecheadle.co.za/
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