Ground Register: First Frost, 2018

Gouache, screen print, and site material on panels
42 × 32 in.

In Ground Register: First Frost (2018), Josephine Halvorson captures a section of ground where a delicate layer of frost traces the contours of earth and debris. Executed in gouache, screen print, and materials gathered from the site where the artist made the work, the painting incorporates a measured ruler along one edge corresponding to the scale of the plants and a painted palette indexing every color used in the making of the painting. Though the composition reads as cool and silvery, the palette reveals a wider range of hues, reflecting Halvorson’s ability to marshal paint’s full range to evoke the atmosphere and sensation of winter.