22º

Last weekend, I ventured up to Steamboat Springs, CO. Steamboat has had a record amount of snowfall this year, and I set a few personal records myself this trip. It was the first time I've used snowshoes, the highest elevation I've painted in, and the most I've frozen my butt off while painting. You don't get much call for painting out in the cold in Texas, so to set my record temperature low I didn't exactly need extreme conditions. In 2006 I painted in Banff, Canada at 28 degrees. This trip I painted in what said 22 degrees, although it felt a lot colder, and I suspect it dipped down a few degrees some while I was out. It was cold enough that the tube of my camelback froze while I was painting. In order to even walk around at all, you had to have snowshoes. So I rented some from a local sporting goods store and I was able to snowshoe a few miles and paint at Steamboat Lake State Park and the magnificent Rocky Mountain National Park. One key advantage to painting in conditions that cold - you learn how to focus. Paintings done at Steamboat Lake State Park and Rocky Mountain National Park: Photos taken at Routt National Forest and Rocky Mountain National Park: