34th World Wide Sketch Crawl., originally uploaded by photographerpainterprintmaker.

Well, winter put a bit of a damper on my painting until today, that is. I signed up our Plein Air group to participate in the 34th World Wide Sketch Crawl. I’ve been wanting to get out and do some snow scenes. Finally the weather co-operated!  I was the only one of the Windsor & Essex County Plein Air Society to make it out to sketch today.  We were all to meet at the Tim Horton’s on Walker Road, by the Chrysler plant. But, it seems life threw the rest a curve ball.  No worries, I’m sure they will make it out to the next event.  If they don’t well I will definitely be sketching, even if I have to do it from the shelter of my van.

You would think living in Canada would guarantee snow. Well, trust me it doesn’t, especially when you live in the most southern point in the country.  But today it was cold as heck. However, I did have my van to keep me warm while I painted the coach house at Willestead Manor, in Windsor, On. Canada. The thermometer in the van read 17°F or -8.33333333°C (to infinity and beyond). I do so like Fahrenheit so much better then Celsius. 17°F sounds so much warmer then -8.3333 °C (to infinity and beyond) ever will. I digress…

Even the van could not totally keep the cold away from my toes forever. So, I warmed up with a Tim Horton’s black coffee, and also celebrated what would have been my Dad’s 100th birthday.  He was here in spirit. How do I know? He saved the last Oooey gooey good Boston Creme Doughnut for me, that’s why!  You see, Boston Cream was his favorite. Sorry, the doughnut didn’t make it into the photo.

Now for a wee bit of a clarification on the image above. No, the roof is not falling off the Northern addition to the coach house. I think by the time I got to that side of the painting my brain was frozen. Also, (lame excuse for bad drawing number two) sitting in a van is not conducive to backing away from your work to check your progress. I usually stand when I paint, so this really sucketh rotten eggs. But, I show my mistakes as well as my successes, because I’m masochistic that way. Now, now please don’t tell me how wonderful this is. I know, when it sucks, K! Why is it you never notice these goof ups until AFTER you take the photo? Blarg! Oh.. I still had fun, and I will go out and do better next time!