Painted outside at -30 degrees

Last year I talked about trying to paint watercolors outside at -20° F., -but didn't do it.

Well, today, inspired by a post in EDM about sketching in the cold, I gave the watercolors a try.

The temperature is -30° F> (-34°C.) today. I put on my parka, arctic boots, wool gloves, grabbed a sketchbook some pan paints and a pan of vodka (instead of water) and headed outside. Using my woodpile for an easel, I found my greens mixed quite well with vodka at that temperature but the blues and crimsons just wanted to stay in the pans.
I was surprised that my brush stayed quite flexible throughout the 20 or 30 minutes that I was outside.

The cold and vodka does seem to lead to softer, less vivid, colors on the paper and the way the colors diffuse is quite different from normal.

No, I didn't drink the vodka! ;-)