Painting Snow

I have been having so much fun painting with oils. I use them mostly straight out of the tube because I love the texture.  It is the one thing that oils do better than any other medium.  I may however have to start using a medium to thin the paint because while it doesn't freeze it does get very thick.

While painting portraits in the Burlington Fine Art Association studio yesterday some of us discussed painting today.  What a great idea that turned out to be.  We headed down to Valley Inn Rd to paint some snow.  It was a fantastic day.  About -3 C with the sun occasionally peaking out through gaps in the clouds.  Five of us showed up to paint and I think that we are all happy with the results.  I know that I am.  This painting loses a lot in the photo because you can't see the texture but few oil paintings photograph well unless done professionally.  This painting has a couple of problems but I am excited about it despite them.
This is a view of Valley Inn Road where it crosses the bridge and then climbs up the bluff to York Road at the top.  The Valley Inn Hotel built about 1820 was just to the right of the bridge but it burned down in 1959.

Painting with Snow

Oh what fun this was.  I was at the Scout Camp and it was a bit slow at the nature centre so I got my paints out.  It was -12 C, had been snowing for about 24 hours and a light powdery snow was still falling all about me.  I was revelling in the fact that my paints weren't freezing and merrily working away when my paint started to get gritty.  I kept working but it was like there was sand in my paint and the texture on the painting was really odd.  I blamed the paint and it wasn't until I got inside and warm enough that I could relax and think it through that I realized that it was ice crystals from the snow falling on my palette that was the problem.   It is just as well that it isn't a very good painting because I am sure that the integrity of the painting will suffer from the water mixed in with the paint. I was quite literally painting with snow.

What a Day

I am feeling very very overwhelmed right now.  I cannot believe the support that I received from family, friends and artistic colleagues today.  I would especially like to thank Debbie for her support and her help in making my first ever solo show special.  I could not have done it without you.  I would also like to thank Rob and Margaret Roi for giving me the opportunity to show my work in such an amazing venue.