Winter Adventures

On November 4, 2022 I participated in Stio’s “first” First Friday at it’s downtown Bend location. Stio’s tagline is  Let The Outside InⓇ and because the winter season was upon us, the prompt for the contribution canvas was “Winter Adventures.” The first contribution was a very fitting “BLUE BIRD DAY.” Throughout the evening, I enjoyed hearing the various stories from the stories of guests. Including a past adventure story about getting stuck in a white out, to new adventures stories about a family that was going to participate in their “1st Family Christmas Tree Hunt.”

After the contributions were added, I waited until the season was almost over before I painted. I began painting in April and interestingly, I finished the work in late May after I hit 50 days on the mountain. I incorporated the snow, the pow, the many turns and the blue bird days from my ski season as inspiration for the canvas.

As I read over the words and phrases before painting,I particularly enjoyed seeing the “1st ski season together at Bachelor. <3”  I reflected on a first for me as a ski coach on Mt. Bachelor. The heart of that statement found its way through each of the treatments. The first treatment began with many of the words popping through. I experimented with a few paintings where contributors added words using gel pens. On the Treatment 1 notice the gel pens popped through the paint to highlight the “1st Family Christmas Tree Hunt” along with the tree drawing that complemented the family adventure they were going to complete. I squeezed paint directly from the paint bottle to rewrite the “1st ski season at Bachelor.”  After a couple hours painting I knew it was time to stop and regroup at another time to do the next treatment and let the thick paint dry.

During this treatment I added a TON of white paint since so many winter adventures included the beautiful snowy days Bachelor and Bend got over the 22/23 winter season.  As I added yellows, greens and blues, I wanted to add in tracks to represent all the snow activities that many wrote about. After I completed this treatment, I LOVED the texture to what was later pointed out by my girlfriend, that “it looked like fresh corduroy” that begins each new day on groomed trails. You’ll notice that my intention was to make sure the heart drawing carried through which is why I didn’t add much paint there. As I was looking the treatment and was wrapping up, I knew I still needed another treatment to bring in the colors reflective of the excitement of the season and the laps that happen on the mountain.

The last treatment captured the original colors and statements from the Subliminal layer and was painted two days after my 50th day on the mountain. “Ski Pow! was written on the top in orange, which is how the orange was chosen for the top along with the green accents that represent the 1st family Christmas Tree Hunt. The “Whiteout…” on the middle section of the right side of the canvas was a blend of the colors seen throughout the canvas. “BLUEBIRD DAY” was written at the bottom, and after many days on the Pine Martin lift with views of Todd Lake, it made sense why there was blue at the bottom. As I was wrapping up the painting, over 20 minutes was spent uncovering the heart drawing from all the paint I applied during the third and final treatment since so much love was shared for the winter adventures. I LOVE how the textured corduroy shows up to bring together all of the treatments in this final treatment of all of the winter adventures that were hopefully enjoyed throughout each persons season.

Seeing the texture and hearing the comment on “corduroy” I almost changed the name of this work to it. After taking into account others’ contributions, I decided to keep the prompt name of “Winter Adventures.” I hope it inspires your future winter adventures for many years to come.  Enjoy Winter Adventures!