Cold Sundown on Cavendish

The start of the year so far has been cold, grey and no snow to speak of. After picking up some items at the grocery store on Sherbrooke and Cavendish, I made a quick painting of the scene looking down Cavendish towards the train bridge underpass. The wind, blasting from west to east, froze my face and partially froze the paints despite having salt in the water. Next time I will need more salt and remember to put the hood on! At least the rest of my gear held up and my hands were not cold. When painting in the winter I only bring one brush because its not possible to fiddle with brushes when wearing giant gauntlet mitts. It may be tempting to take off the gloves to fiddle with the gear but this is a big mistake as I learned in the past. Not only will the hands be cold for the rest of the trip even with the gloves back on, it will cause an accumulation of cold damage to the hands and persistent pain for the whole season. Since I sorted out the glove situation awhile back I have not had any major issues. I wear wool wrist gators, insulated gloves, and a deerskin mitten-style gauntlet covering. I used to have more layers but it actually was counterproductive, and its important to be able to ball up your hands inside the getup when you are walking so that the fingers wont get too cold. In the end there is nothing you can do to prevent getting cold, other than stay indoors, or get those new heated mitts which feels like cheating to me. At least the results are interesting, in the example above you immediately 'feel' the coldness just by looking at the painting and noticing the ice crystals that formed texture in the paint. I just suggested the cars at the bottom of the painting with some simple shapes, green windshield and some red taillights. 

Cold Sundown on Cavendish, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, January 2024 (No. 3678)