Steve and I have been in our home state of Wisconsin for the last couple of days, enjoying the Christmas season with family and friends. We checked up on the local weather before leaving Texas, and there hadn't been any snow on the forecast. In fact, it really looked like it would be a "brown Christmas". I REALLY hoped for at least a little bit of snow... and it turns out, my wish came true sooner than I thought it would! When I woke up on Thursday morning and looked out the window, there it was: a fresh, beautiful dusting of white fluffy stuff covering the trees and fields of my in-laws' surrounding country land. I got outside as soon as I could! Now, I've never painted out in the snow. There was one early-morning painting session in Switzerland that had me a little bit uncomfortable (I think it was about 45 degrees outside), but this time it was 32 and cloudy. I bundled up as best as a Wisconsinite-turned-Texan sissy knows how, and headed outside. I chose a small lone red pine for my setting, with the snowy trail nearby coming towards the viewer in the composition. The clouds made everything a dull chroma, but I tried to pull out as much color as I could see. Also, I followed the recommendations from more experienced plain air painters, who said to use Permalba white or some other white that is a bit more runny, as the paint gets stiffer when it's out in the cold.
My dog, Bella, enjoyed running around in circles and eating snow during my entire painting session (what a joy for her to be back in the country!). I lasted for about an hour before losing feeling in my fingers and toes (even though I wore gloves the whole time). It was still quite exhilarating and I had a lot of fun with it. I hope that next time, though, I'll have some sunshine to bring out more of winter's beautiful palette. So, praying for another snow storm! I'm just getting started!
Painting in the Snow!
Very nice.
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