PRACTICAL TIPS - Painting The Snow

A painters dream - 

Lucky us, thick snow, and days of white!
It is a painters dream for sure.

Thought it would be good to write/blog about it when it's still current.

① Staying Warm

Of course, biggest question of pass-byers is: "Aren't you cold?"
Well, no.
I wear several bodywarmers, and wintercoat. Double trousers.
I wear fisherman boots, these can keep warm up to minus 30 Celsius.
Then, hands, these days I'm wearing leather winter gloves. The best I've tried until now, the freeze doesn't go in. Maybe after 3 hours you need to warm them up on a hot coffee can or something. There are these handwarmers, put these in your gloves at the end of your painting session.

② Keeping the Canvas & Palette Snow-Free

Then, it will snow, and the wind blows it in.
My main focus, in using the umbrellas is to keep the painting (firstly) and palette 'snow-free' for as much as is possible.
I use a fold up palette so I can protect the paints if necessary.
Also, because of this fold-up I can quickly pack and run home. Leaving the paints on.

Then, oil-paint does freeze, but that's after minus, -13 Celsius, and that's rare here. I've painted in the past up to -10. Yes, turps will help, linseed oils, but I use these only if I must, when hale gets into the paint, you need to squeeze new or use turps to smooth these out again. (In cold climates you could bring something (battery powered heat-mat) to keep the palette heated.

③ Pre-Mix

Pre- mixing at home is also a good idea sometimes, and with the fold-out palette (img/source here below) you'll have paint ready to go. Which mixes?  Well, you can look out to your garden, and I'd create mixes for sky, snow, bushes/trees, and if you're not sure, then just squeeze blobs from 7 tubes, and go mixing outdoors. The next day, you'll know what you need from your experiences on the first day. I tried this tube for the first time: 

A second umbrella is good to keep the palette snow free-ish when the wind blows snow in horizontally for example. Use duct-tape to quickly fixate the umbrellas.
If you make the easel heavy enough, I put the box with paints on it, or water bottles, so even in winds, it will stand with 2 umbrellas on it.

④ Messy Efforts but Rewarding

Of course, you need to get comfortable with the discomfort. That's probably the biggest hurdle. Things get messy. You need to make the car snow-free, frozen locks, broken windshield-wipers😄.
Slippery roads, the gear falling in the snow, stains of paint, or a tagger machine failing because of frost...

I keep all gear indoors, so you can at least start with unfrozen tools.

And for the rest, I smile when I am there again, witnessing beauty!!!
While the normal "" people curse the inconvenience, we as painters can see the bliss.
Many of the nature photographers have a somewhat similar atitude, getting out and about, such as yesterday, two white swans in a purple white field, so amazing, I had to have taken a picture! Also, blizzards, so beautiful as these 'wipe-out' all that's far away, making the contrasts so low, a white hazy world.

Trees, bushes in red-browns, melted snow seeming so yellow next to snow in shadow. Greys get color. Or vise versa, colors are greys: a grey seems purple next to a ocherish edge of melted snow on a road. On and on, lessons to learn about color!

⑤ Outdoor Painting Delivers

And you can of course also paint indoors looking through a window. Any/each garden might have appeal!
Yet, the suffering outdoors Will Make you Rush more, which is often what the painting needs. Essence captured in bold strokes (quick right decisions)
By needing to focus, and just leaning into it, by the haste, also by the change you witness, by choosing colors for the moment, you Will get real-results, often More real than a fancy photo can show(!!)

Happy outdoor painting!

⑥ Efforts of the past: stepping stones for the future

That January thick snow rained away, but for next week, there's again freeze to be expected. I hope it will snow again.

During the rain I was thinking "I could have done so much more". But... next time you WILL proceed where you left off: similar fascinations, similar views or color combinations, you will continue and build upon similar experiments. And that is the 'red-thread' (like: yarn) in each painter's development, no experience is wasted, but stored in the subconscious, ready to be continued!

So even if you would have 'so so results' don't see it as a 'one off' because it never is. These are all building blocks to greater results in the future. All effort gets rewarded.

⑦ Start More Comfortable or Start Simple

If you're a beginner outdoor painter, it's best to choose a sunny, blue sky snow-day, verses a blizzard day : ) AND it's best to start in a more comfortable season, getting acquainted with your gear, and you'll know why and how to speed up your painting process outdoors.
However, when you're pulled to the beauty of the white landscape, Just Do It, and keep the time short. Create a small Simple painting. Create something amost Abstract. I call this 'Color Notes'. Often this is a great 'Memory in Paint' treasure painting, and when you continue painting in Spring, you'll see how EASY that is, compared to the -yes- suffering when painting in Winter!

Here are my results, view them larger (and available) at my store here, 

HAPPY PAINTING IN 2026!