Michael Cleary

When I made the career change to become a full time artist in 1968 I was using oil paints on 10 by 12 inch panels, working out of doors in front of the subject. A small group of us who frequently painted together had developed a safe system to carry our wet paintings out of the bush and home after an extended painting trip. When winter set in it provided wonderful snow subjects and a serious problem. When the snow is falling it soon covers both the work in progress and the palette as the snow builds up on them. I needed a shelter and tried to find a suitable tent, but all the camping tents that were light enough to carry to work each day were all made in bright colours and so were useless. My solution was to make a tent of my own design using cotton sheeting that did not interfere with the colours. It worked well as long as the wind did not go right round and blow the falling snow into the open front. Later I used the tent to keep the rain off the watercolours. All went well until in the fall, as the temperature went down and the humidity went up the paintings did not dry. A catalytic heater solved the problem; I could have it inside the tent, out of the rain and dry the work when I needed to. The next step was to add a door that rolled down in the front and was secured in place with zippers. I made a small hole in the door to see the subject, and was snug and hoped I could keep going until it got too cold. To my surprise using a lot of wool and fleece under a snowmobile suit, felt lined boots and snowshoes, I was able to keep painting all winter without the paint freezing

This has been my system since then. It has worked well in almost all conditions. One of the most extreme conditions that I have encountered was during a trip along the north of Lake Superior at Marathon. I wanted to paint on the shore of the lake, but the temperature was minus forty, clear sun and no wind. All went well using two catalytic heaters until during the afternoon the brush did not pick up the paint as it should. Then I realized that the sun had gone down far enough to not shine on the side wall of the tent and the paint had frozen. End of painting for that day. Another challenge arose during our trip to Baffin Island. With no obstacles in it way the wind could be quite fierce and it battered the tent wall against my back and arm making painting impossible. Adding some tie points to the outside of the wall to peg out a line to hold the wall away from me worked, most of the time. Since I have moved to the West Coast I have encountered real rain. I have painted in all the Provinces and had found the waterproofing of the roof to be adequate, but here the rain sprayed down onto me as if there was no roof at all. It was back to the sewing machine to make a plastic cover for the roof and the tops of the wall that I can tie on and it is best put on before it is absolutely necessary.

During a recent summer another local problem came up. I had found several subjects on the islands in Barclay Sound that I wanted to paint but there was not enough clear flat ground to set up the tent so I made a pyramid shaped roof and soaked it in water repellant. For these subjects I am working in the thick undergrowth below the big trees so when it rains, and it did a lot, the rain is falling straight down and this new addition to my range of shelters worked very well.