The first winter paint-out

Weather: Although it was overcast, the sun was out as a hazy orb and the temperatures were about -2C.

On Monday just after lunch, I left the church where the Charleswood Art Group meets. The weather was absolutely beautiful outside. No wind and the sky was bright blue and sunny. What a perfect day to be out painting and I was inside instead. That afternoon I emailed one of my painting buddies Angela and suggested we go out on Tuesday as this was supposed to be the best day this week temperature wise with a high of 2C.

We headed out to Assiniboine Forest and got set up around 9:30am. We set up at the junction of a few different walking paths that you soon realize are equally busy in the winter time with people out walking their mostly large dogs.

I chose one pathway looking into the sun. I liked the haziness of the still visible sun in the sky above the forest. Angela chose a different path view with lots of leaning trees. We worked for approximately an hour and found that we were dressed well enough except for our boots and mitts. Next time I will wear my big Sorel boots and my new down gloves with some rubber gloves over top. The new hat that I bought at Cabela's was absolutely perfect. It kept my whole head warm.

This first time out during "winter" was for me as much a test about the problems I'm going to face if we continue to paint throughout the winter. The obvious problem of wearing the right clothing is problem number one. I had thought that I needed gloves but Angela wore mitts which I think will work equally well if not better. This is because painters generally don't hold a brush like a pencil which means you don't really need great dexterity for the actual painting. Of course, you do need some dexterity for setting up your box/easel, squeezing out paint tubes if you haven't done this beforehand and other little tasks.  I still intend to try my new downfilled gloves with the appropriately sized rubber gloves over top. I don't intend to muck up my expensive gloves if I can help it!

I recorded the temperature at the start of this post as this is important information to have so we can gauge just how low the temperature and wind-chill gets before we just can't work this way outside. Of course there are other ways to paint the outdoors without painting outside which I would like to explore; one of them being to paint in your car. Liz Haywood-Sullivan, the pastel artist I studied with this fall, let us know that she has a few new DVDs out; one of them on painting in inclement weather. She mentioned that you can go out for 10 minutes and do a quick sketch/value study, take some color notes and then go home and do your painting in the studio. I am waiting and watching for the release of this video.

Until next time and I do hope there is a next time!

Angela taking a photo of her view

My setup and view

My new warm hat



My finished painting