Cooling off......

Well after yesterday's post full of angst and indignation - I decided last evening I needed to do something to cool me off and lift my spirits.

This weekend is Feb Fest here in Kingston (Kingston's idea of a winter carnival).  There is everything from ice slides and ice mazes in City Hall park to ice sculptures and all sorts of activities on the outdoor skating rink... and oh yes a Polar Bear swim on Sunday morning.

One truly inspirational resident decided to try and find something to lift everyone's spirits during the February blah month.  It technically has nothing to do with Kingston's Feb Fest and from what I can gather, he had no support from City Hall - but he set about finding local artists who would be willing to do an original painting on a sheet of acrylic.  Then he took the acrylic paintings and set them each in a block of ice.  He wanted to put the ice paintings - or Froid d'Art as it is named - around the center of town - but City Council couldn't stretch their imagination enough to see how this might be incorporated into Feb Fest.  

But supporters rallied round and agreed to not only host one of these paintings on their property but pay for the privilege. (the payment was to help cover the costs)

Last evening I loaded the camera and tripod and GPS into the car and headed off just after the sun set to find these paintings.  It turned out to be more of a challenge than I imagined.  The paintings are quite literally spread all around Kingston. (the average distance between paintings was approx 2kms - x 10 paintings made for quite a trek)  

Then we have had snow just about all week - and though the side streets were more or less cleared - the snow banks were as 'high as an elephant's eye' .  I found myself climbing / scaling these banks and sliding down the other side to get close enough to the Froid d'Art to shoot them.  Oh yeah and add to that it was -18 (haven't a clue what the wind chill was) and it was a very challenging 3 hours.  (Yup took me 3 hours !!)

Here are some of the better shots  - oh yes and I forgot to say - each painting was lit from inside........

This Bed and Breakfast hosted the following painting.......

and then these are more shot around town

 



I hope to get to a few more activities this weekend - which of course will mean more pictures come Monday morning ......