Water painting* in the winter presents many challenges. The trouble with water is that it freezes, which affects the paint, and also affects the human body which is mostly made of water. The first question to ask yourself before attempting to make art in the winter is... do you really want to? The second question is what country do you live in? Because winter in Barbados is 29℃ (84℉), while in Canada it can easily get down to -29℃ (-20℉). After many years of painting outdoors in the Canadian winter, I have learned that it is possible, albeit with many adjustments as compared to painting in summer weather.
*this is the term I use for watercolour painting.
Dressing warm is important. This painting called 'Cold Day Brrrr' was about the coldest day I ever attempted painting, it was -29℃ with down to -35℃ with the windchill. To walk around, then stand and paint, one needs to have the right winter gear. Specialized winter boots that are in good condition and able to withstand sub zero temperatures are essential. I got a pair made by the Baffin company, designed in Canada (made elsewhere) they made all the difference. Then the underlayers, ideally wool long johns, socks, wrist gators if you can find them, wool had, scarf and an extra face scarf covering. A big warm parka and snow pants would also help one last in the cold. The mitts are tricky, I use a wind resistant moose or deer-hide mitt, with a lighter glove underneath. Ideally you never take the mitts off. You can practice at home by painting with oven mitts on!
The next challenge, if water painting in the winter, is to prevent the water from freezing. Adding alcohol does not work well beyond about -5℃, and I wouldn't recommend anti-freeze since it is highly toxic. I theory glycerol could work but only at high percentages. I settled on salt, but it takes a lot, at least 20 grams of salt per 100mL of water. To avoid waste I carry two bottles, one with the clean salt water, and another with the dirty. After about a dozen paintings I dump the dirty, and use the formerly clean water in the dirty bottle. Then I have a stock of clean salt solution ready to go. Regardless of the details, a steady supply of clean, salty water will be needed. I also bring a small container with fresh water for drinking, and to know if I overdid it.... when the fresh water freezes in your bag its probably time to go home!
In the painting 'Blizzard on Somerled Avenue' I added small dots of liquid frisket (latex resist) before going out on location, then peeled it off afterwards. It worked well, but its not a strategy I personally use that often.
As compared to water painting in the summer, water painting in the winter is a completely different experience. As the season's change so does the technique requirements. Since the paint dries very slowly with salt water in the winter, the overlays have to be kept to a minimum. An overlay is when you apply one colour wash, then let it dry, and paint it over with a second, and even a third or fourth. In winter it would be lucky for even the first wash to dry. So I apply any essential washes first so they have the maximum amount of time to dry. Then I try to paint the rest of the scene more like a puzzle. In "Heavy Snow on Somerled Avenue" I had to leave white spaces all around the road and tree trunk, which gave the effect of fresh snow. That is one of the main advantages in winter water painting, snow is white mostly.
If you are going to go outside and paint in the winter, then you definitely want to feature the snow. There is little point in painting something like a building that could be easily done in the summer. On the 'Mountains of Snow' bike trip I took last winter, I made sure to paint mountains of snow. After years of painting snow, it never ceases to amaze me how much colour snow can take on. Of course, it is mostly white, but it reflects sky-colour in its shadows, and mixes with sand and dirt as you can see in the painting above, done in Ville st Pierre.
Frozen water can be reflective, matte, transparent or snow-covered. When it breaks up into flows the ice can convey colours from the bottom of the water body. In this case, ice was flowing down st Lawrence river on a windy day, and giant chunks were bobbing and colliding on their way. The submerged parts had a yellowish glow. There is no set formula for painting ice and water. Studying it carefully will reveal a rainbow's worth of subtle colour variations.
As interesting as the colours are the shapes of snow. It sits, contained, on the surface of just about anything. It is technically demanding to capture the white effects in water painting because the white paint is not good at covering dark paint. In fact, I omit white paint all together from my palette. In the 'Picnic Tables Mount Royal' painting, I created the snow puffs on the picnic tables using negative space. The tree trunk in the background has a curve at its base, creating the illusion of the snow pile. The rest of the background elements stop neatly at the top of the snow piles. To get the shadows, I apply the blue-grey base, then blend with a touch of clean (or slightly tinted with yellow ochre) water.
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