Tips for painting outdoors in winter in snow country

January is here!  If the weather permits, and you dress warmly, paint-outs in January can be special.

Here are some tips for painting in snow country:

• If there is snow and it is a sunny day ---- don't go snow-blind!!!!  It may alter your color sense, but do wear sunglasses to protect your eyes.  Peak now and then to check your colors and values.
• Get a large board and place it behind your art panel to screen out the light coming around edges
• Bring a black trash bag, an old blanket or tarp and place it in front of your easel so you don't get bounced light from the ground up into your eyes while you paint.
• sorry - watercolor painting and acrylic painting may freeze.... try another medium, take photos or sketch
• Wool socks, turtlenecks, wool sweater, fingerless gloves, wool hats, thermal underwear, handwarmer pouches, a thermos of hot drink, parka or wind-breaking jacket, heavy waterproof boots.... if you think you need them, bring them!
• Oil painters - keep your tubes in the house the night before instead of your car.  Unstick any stubborn tube tops before you leave home.  Oil paints can get cold and hard to get out of the tube and also hard to paint with.  Medium helps to make paint spread easier when cold.
• If you like to combine snowshoeing with your painting excursion, you can pull a plastic sled with you with your gear on it.  If you set up in soft snow, your tripod will sink down in the snow and might be too low.  The sled can also act as a support for your tripod and you stand in your snowshoes.
• Painting snow:  Snow has colors in it.  Note the best snow paintings you have seen - if you held a white piece of paper up to the painting - you would find the snow was not painted with pure white out of the tube!  Another tip is to have both warm and cool colors in your snow - the warm colors will be where the sun has lit the snow, and the cool is where it falls away and is in shadow.