As winter descends in full force it is increasingly difficult to make watercolour paintings on location. The phrase 'en plein air' sounds so nice and fancy in French (in fresh air) but less so when the plein air is a raging blizzard (en tempête de neige?). This was the second painting I did on my walk, I was down on Harley street picking up some bread at the Snowdon Bakery when I saw a good place to sit under an overhang at the local strip mall. Mostly protected from the snow, I could get this painting done of a red bike in deep snow, with the side wall of a condo in the background. Since I ran out of cold press paper I used the thin hot press that I cut up recently for the edgy abstacts. To my delight, the paint quickly absorbed into the paper, making it possible to capture a lot more detail that ever before. An annoyance in the studio, this paper attribute of absorbing paint fast, turned out to be perfect for winter paintings.
Harley Street Red Bicycle in Deep Snow, 5 x 7" hot press 90lbs watercolour, December 2020
The next painting is an example of what I am writing about. It was done on my regular cold press 140lbs paper which does not absorb paint very quickly, especially on humid days or in the winter. The reason is that they add a lot of sizing, a substance that allows paint to flow and mix before being absorbed. Without sizing the paint is quickly absorbed exactly where the brush touches. This painting got sprayed with tiny ice crystals of snow- I was sitting under a thick copse of pine trees so only the tiniest of snow flakes made it through and onto the painting. I walked home and dropped off the painting so it could dry, and when I came back from the second painting, I saw this misty mess! At least it looks a lot like the Benny Sports Complex in a Blizzard!
Benny Sports Complex in Blizzard, 5 x 7" cold press 140lbs watercolour, December 2020
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