Myriam Wares: Winter series

Myriam Wares' series Winter — 2026-08-24 — uses the shock of moving from Montreal to Turin to build a visual mood that feels like an alternate soundtrack to seasons.

Wares traded snowy Montreal for the tiled courtyards and citrus groves of northern Italy and channelled the unease of that shift into images that look nothing like a typical winter. Giant clay pots, oversized oranges and lemons, cypress trees and patterned floors recur across the works; snow appears only in part of some compositions, as if another climate is quietly pushing through the frame. The result reads like a private, surreal stage set: familiar props rearranged so they sing new, uneasy harmonies.

“Rather than depicting winter literally, the series grew out of the disorientation I felt moving halfway across the world,” Myriam Wares.

Wares layers references to symbolism, traditional painting techniques and art history to give each image an old-world warmth even as its elements float in dream logic. Colours are Mediterranean — sun-yellow citrus against terracotta and deep green — but the composition keeps a cool distance, the half-dusted snow a visual shorthand for being caught between two places.

Why music fans should care

These pieces are ready-made for music culture. Think single covers that reject literal moods (bright colour, sad song), stage backdrops that suggest a place without naming it, or music-video palettes that fuse nostalgia with displacement. Bands and solo artists chasing a particular atmosphere — sunlit melancholy, displaced romance, or cinematic stillness — will find the Winter series a compact catalogue of cues: props, patterning and lighting that translate directly into production design, photography and motion work.

Wares has a decade of freelance work and recognition from illustration awards; Winter reads as both a personal record and a practical toolbox for creatives. If you care about how visual identity complements sound, these paintings map a clear route from feeling to aesthetic.

See the Winter series and Wares' other work here.